Jan Brueghel the Younger, attr., The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel
the depiction tells of the biblical story of ...

Jan Brueghel the Younger, attr., The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel
the depiction tells of the biblical story of the Old Testament, according to which God created the heavens and the earth and finally, with Adam and Eve, the first human beings, who gave life to Cain and Abel, Cain, the elder of the brothers became a farmer and his younger brother a shepherd, when the time came, When it was time to sacrifice to God for his gifts, each of the brothers lit a fire, Cain sacrificed his crops and Abel sacrificed lambs - when Cain's smoke, in contrast to Abel's, did not ascend to heaven and thus Cain's sacrifice was obviously not accepted by God, he became angry and subsequently killed his brother backwards. Genesis 4:3-5] "... After some time, Cain made an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground; Abel also made an offering from the firstlings of his flock and from their fat. The Lord looked at Abel and his offering, but he did not look at Cain and his offering. Then Cain's heart ran hot and his gaze was lowered. ..."In the background, Cain toils in vain in front of his house at the smoking altar of sacrifice, at the feet of which various fruits are provided for the sacrifice. In the foreground, Abel is clearly more successful in front of his house - the smoke of his sacrificed lamb rises to heaven, where God receives him and spreads his arms over Abel in blessing, for all the apparent idyll of the scene, the cruel progress of the story can only be guessed at by the Bible-literate viewer - the painter alone hints at all that is to come through skilfully arranged symbols, for example, he places an axe behind Abel, who turns his back on his brother, The pomegranate bush on the right with its blossoms and bursting fruit was not integrated into the picture at this point for no reason - its complex meaning shows it to be a symbol of blood and death as well as divine providence, among other things, low impasto religious genre painting, oil on copper plate, 17th century. century, signed lower right "J. Breughel fecit", in the attached printout of an e-mail conversation, which according to the previous owner refers to the present painting, the art historian Fred G. Meijer writes "... The photos you have sent are not ideal for judgment of the painting in question, but as far as they allow judgment, it can be attributed with some reservation to Jan Breughel the Younger as a late work, probably with studio collaboration. ... [The photos you have sent are not ideal for judgement of the painting in question, but as far as they allow judgement, it can be attributed with some reservation to Jan Breughel the Younger as a late work, probably with studio collaboration]", old retouched, pressure marks in the painting plate, partial loss of painting layer, in need of restoration, framed, folding dimensions approx. 69.5 x 86.5 cm.