Chapel 11 - The Massacre of the Innocents

It depicts the scene of the massacre of the innocent ordered by Herod.
Commissioned and financed by the Duke of Savoy Carlo Emanuele I, who visited the Sacred Mount of Varallo in 1583. It was built at the beginning of 1586 by the d’Enrico brothers from Alagna. The painted decoration was created in 1590 by Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Mauro della Rovere brothers, known as the Fiammenghini, and depicts Herod's Hall crowded with people. The painted figures are closely integrated with the terracotta statues, traditionally attributed to Giacomo Paracca Bargnola from Valsolda and were completed in 1591. Between 1594 and January 1595, at the behest of Bishop Carlo Bascapè, the sculptor Michele Prestinari added the canopy of Herod's throne and other thirty paintings of the innocents in 1595 by artist Domenico Alfano from Perugia.
In the vault segments: the birth of Jesus, the Magi traveling, the Magi before Herod, the Magi in adoration of the Child, an angel warns the Magi to change their road on their way back, avoiding Herod, an angel appears in a dream to Joseph urging him to flee into Egypt, the flight into Egypt, and the death of Herod. The chapel is currently being restored.