TINTORETTO
(b. 1518, Venezia, d. 1594, Venezia)

The Murder of Abel

1551-52
Oil on canvas, 149 x 196 cm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This work together with the Creation of Animals and the Temptation of Adam, created between 1550 and 1553, was originally in the Scuola della Trinità.

On seeing from the rising smoke that God has accepted the animal sacrificed by his brother Abel rather than the fruits of the field he himself brought as an offering, Cains jealousy makes him the first murderer. Tintoretto portrays the scene as a primeval drama, with Abel sacrificed, as it were, on his own altar. He is already bleeding from a gaping head wound, and next Cain will strike him with the splintered end of his club. Ideas for the male nude, shown contorted and foreshortened, came from a painting by Andrea Schiavone (Galleria Palatina, Florence) and a ceiling picture by Titian (Santa Maria della Salute, Venice).




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