This dramatic high-relief carving forms part of the Renaissance choir screen (jubé) at Chartres Cathedral, sculpted in stages between 1514 and 1544. The scene represents the Massacre of the Innocents, executed in 1542, and exemplifies the fully developed naturalism and emotional intensity of the late French Renaissance.

At the left, a soldier lunges forward, gripping the hair of a desperate mother as she struggles to shield her child. His muscular arm and carefully modelled anatomy, visible through the cut of his tunic, reveal the influence of Italianate forms entering French sculpture in the first half of the 16th century. Behind him stands a second soldier, his stance firm and expression impassive, reinforcing the brutality of the moment.

The mother, twisting in anguish, attempts to wrench her child free even as another infant clings to her. The artist emphasises the violence through intersecting diagonals: the soldier’s extended arm, the mother’s contorted torso, and the splayed limbs of the crying child. The crisp detailing of drapery, armour, and facial features reflects the virtuosity of the Chartres workshops under Jehan Texier (Jehan de Beauce) and his successors.

Unlike the medieval quatrefoils on the portals at Rouen, this relief positions the viewer within the immediacy of the event. Figures are carved nearly in the round, pushing forward into the spectator’s space, an approach that marks the Renaissance transformation of narrative sculpture at Chartres.

This panel is one of the most powerful episodes in the choir screen’s extensive Life of the Virgin and Infancy of Christ cycle, demonstrating both the technical sophistication and the heightened emotional register that characterise the later phases of the ensemble.