Let be a smooth connected ample curve in an abelian surface . Translate its chosen basepoint to zero and apply the universal property of the Jacobian variety. The image of is a closed connected algebraic subgroup containing the translated curve. If it had dimension one, that curve would be the subgroup itself; a distinct coset is disjoint and numerically equivalent, forcing . This contradicts ampleness, so the homomorphism is surjective.
Choose a projective embedding of the abelian surface . By Bertini's theorem, a general hyperplane section is a smooth projective curve that is connected. It is ample, so . Choose and translate the inclusion so it sends to the identity of . The universal property of the Jacobian variety then gives a homomorphism of abelian varieties
whose composition with the based Abel map of an algebraic curve is this translated inclusion.
The image is a closed connected algebraic subgroup, since is projective, and it contains a translate of . If the image had dimension one, that irreducible curve would be the image subgroup itself. A distinct coset is disjoint from it and has the same numerical divisor class: translation acts trivially on cohomology, being homotopic to the identity on the complex torus. Its self-intersection would therefore be zero, contradicting . The image has dimension two and is all of . Thus is surjective, as expressed by the principle that an ample curve on an abelian surface generates the surface.