Cain’s Fratricide

Adam and Eve’s offspring, the farmer Cain and the shepherd Abel, both offered sacrifice to God, but only Abel’s sacrifice received mercy. Cain, furious and jealous, went out to the field with his younger brother and murdered him there. Previously seen as a work of Guido Reni, the picture appears to be an early work of the Caravaggio successor Manfredi. The way the figures are intertwined indicates a continuation of compositional principles from Mannerist painting of the 16th century.