Comparing scenes

In the Vienna version, directly in front of the Duke of Alba, commander of the Spanish troops, we see foot soldiers driving their pikes into the swathed bodies of infants. On the London original however, turkeys are being killed. In the Vienna version we find a mother and father pleading with a soldier to take their daughter instead of the son he has already seized.

On the repainted London work, the soldier is holding a goose. And while a woman, wringing her hands, bends over bread and other supplies in the painting at Hampton Court, the image in Vienna uncovers the real tragedy – she is crying over the death of her child.