Presepio 2007
Detail K — massacre of the innocents
i always wanted to include the "massacre of the innocents" scene, with giotto's fresco an inspiration, and so thought this year would be perfect. i ran around party supplies stores locating the perfect plastic babies used for baby showers.
in naples I picked up two roman soldiers in an attempt to illustrate imperial mayhem, well aware that it was Herod's forces who slaughtered the infants in Matthew's biblical tale.
akela summarily dismissed the figures: "there are no roman soldiers in baghdad!" after failing on various fronts to argue my case and stressing repeatedly that the presepio is a fantasyscape existing beyond time and space (i even suggested she read my essay on the subject), i relented. a compromise was reach when i found these plastic soldiers. it would have been fitting to include figurines of "insurgents" and suicide bombers but you can't readily find those at Toys-R-Us, at least not in NYC.
