The sacrifices of Cain and Abel
Author: Workshop of Simão Álvares (?)
Date: 17th century, middle
Material: Oil on chestnut
Dimensions (cm): H 95 x W 104
Provenance: Guimarães, Convento de Santa Clara
Inventory No.: MAS P 21
The painting is based on a biblical episode (as the legend that is present indicates: GENES.C.4.). It shows two kneeled figures, each next to a sacrificial altar. In the foreground, there’s a lamb being consumed by the fire; in the background, there’s a bunch of cobs on fire. One is able to see that God favourably receives Abel’s offering, since he appears in the middle of the clouds inclined in his direction while the fire and the smoke climb directly to the sky. In the background, he doesn’t approve of Cain’s offering, because the smoke of the sacrifice is deflected to his face. The agreement between the written message of the legend and the visual message is perfect and the latter corresponds to the traditional sponds to the icononongraphy visual message is iconography of the episode about Abel and Cain’s sacrifices: “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering – fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” (Genesis, 3 – 5).
This panel is part of a wider group (MAS P 17 to MAS P 29 and MAS P 60) that is included in the collections of the Museum. They are oil-on-wood paintings that were discovered by the first director of the Museu de Alberto Sampaio, Alfredo Guimarães, behind a false wall of the former Casa do Cabido of the Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira, that were then included in the heritage fund of the Museum (1947).
Recent researches permit us to conclude that this group of paintings belonged to the extinct Convento de Santa Clara, decorating the sacristy.
The authorship of this set of panels is currently attributed to an unknown local master. One of the hypotheses advanced considers that these works may have resulted from the Guimarães workshop of Simão Álvares, but, considering the iconographic and style characteristics, one concludes that at least two painters were involved, one of them being more agile in the drawing and more erudite, since some of the panels reveal a technical mastery and a superior quality.
It was also possible to conclude that the main iconographical source that was used were the Nordic mannerist engravings by the xylographer Jost Amman (1539 – 1591) (edited in Frankfurt in 1580). The Old Testament themes are very unusual in 17th-century Portuguese art, the painters and the people commissioning them preferring themes such as those related to Christ’s, the saints’ or the Virgin’s lives, and, thus the use of foreign illustrations as source of inspiration for the depiction of other biblical themes.