De dood van Abel

Abel’s death is shown through the grief and judgment that follow the first murder. On one side, Cain walks away into a storm-lashed field beneath a jagged bolt of lightning, carrying the weight of his violence and exile. On the other, Adam and Eve bow in sorrow beside a mound of stones marking Abel’s burial, their hands and faces turned toward the grave of their son. The divided composition contrasts Cain’s restless departure with the parents’ mourning, presenting sin not as a private act but as a wound that enters the whole human family. The subject draws from Genesis 4, where Abel’s blood cries out from the ground and Cain is cursed from the soil he has defiled. The image is suited for teaching on sin, jealousy, judgment, grief, repentance, and the tragic beginning of violence after Eden.