The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve

By: William Blake

            In this painting you can see Adam and Eve discovering their dead son. The man who seems to be running away is the murder, Cain, and he is actually the one who is supposed to resemble to what an ideal male should be. Cain is shown with an expression of horror and realizes what he has done. I think this shows the spirit of a Romantic ideal because there is no order, everything is not to what a human looks like and the colors aren’t colorful or bright. Even though this has a religious back round dealing with Adam and Eve, in the original story there isn’t a murder, and if there were, the Church would not allow for the murder to be the image of what an ideal man should be. Blake also shows it, as being very depressing and sad with Eve covering the body and in the back round it is just black mountains.

            Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His work has been judged as some of Britain’s greatest writings and paintings ever produced throughout history. Blake created and wrote about the human body and how he depicts the body of God. He was very influenced by the American Revolution and by the Catholic bible. Ironically he was very hostile towards the Church of England and to other major organized religions. Blake held many views to those of Thomas Paine about religion and freedoms.

            Overall this painting does reflect Romanic feelings and ideals since it is dealing with ways of painting figures unlike the human body. The depressing scene felt with all of the black and death behind it as well.