# The Murder of Abel [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TINTORETTO, Jacopo]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 149 x 196 cm ## Commentary 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 \(Santa Maria della Salute, Venice\). ## Related artworks - [A Philosopher \(detail\)]() - [A Philosopher]() - [Allegory of Faith]() - [Allegory of Fortune \(Felicità\)]() - [Allegory of Generosity]() - [Allegory of Goodness]() - [Allegory of Happiness]() - [Allegory of the Scuola della Carità]() - [Allegory of the Scuola della Misericordia]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Marco]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Teodoro]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()