AGONY IN THE GARDEN

Agony in the Garden: translation

   An event that took place the night before Christ was arrested by the Roman soldiers and submitted to the Crucifixion. Christ went to the garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John. His disciples fell asleep and he, tormented by his future death, began to pray. An angel appeared to him to give him strength and, by the time the night was over, Christ accepted his fate. The scene was rendered by Andrea Mantegna (mid-1450s), Giovanni Bellini (c. 1460; both London; National Gallery), and Albrecht Altdorfer (1515; Monastery of Sankt-Florian near Linz) at daybreak, this last with brilliant lighting effects that render the sky orange-red. El Greco (1605-1610; Budapest, Szepmuveszeti Muzeum) and Jan Gossart (1510; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) preferred to depict the moment as a nocturnal scene.