Cain and Abel

The drawing represents the biblical scene of the murder of Abel and points out the physicality of the characters. During the second half of the 17th century, Ubaldo Gandolfi was one of the main leading figures of Accademia Clementina whose main purposes were the practice of drawing and the study of human male and female nude. In the last years other drawings and paintings, representing the same biblical scene, have appeared to underline the great fortune of this subject. The Pinacoteca of Bologna possess a similar subject Cain runs away after the killing of Abel (Artisti Italiani 1977, n.108, fig. 108, n. 3785). The drawings preserved in Bologna and Reggio Emilia, can be ascribed to Ubaldo Gandolfi, because of the high quality and the skilful use of lights and shadows. (A. Bigi Iotti, 2016)