Carlo Pellicani, after Carlo Buzzi, Cain Slays Abel

1807-13
Marble
West façade, Milan Cathedral

Cain uses a branch from a tree to kill his brother. Genesis 4:8 does not say how, so different images picture a variety of weapons. The fallen tree in the background echoes the form of the fallen Abel but hardly corresponds to the verse in Genesis, which sets the murder in agro, "in the field."

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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.