VRIES, Adriaen de
(b. ca. 1556, The Hague, d. 1626, Prague)

Cain killing Abel

1622
Bronze, height 70 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

This work can be viewed equally well from all sides because the figures are twisting - or serpentining - around their own axes. Such serpentinata is a typical feature of Mannerism, a courtly style that de Vries appropriated while studying under the sculptor Giambologna in Florence as a young man.