Christ kneels on a grassy hillock, hands folded in prayer, and looks up at a floating angel who carries a chalice. At the front, three of the apostles slumber, heads resting on their arms or hands. Soldiers wearing fantastic Renaissance versions of classical armour approach from the sides, led by Judas, who has betrayed Christ’s location to them. This is the Agony in the Garden, as told in the Gospel of Mark (14: 32–43).
This painting was once thought to be by the young Raphael but is now attributed to Lo Spagna, another pupil of Perugino. It is based largely on Perugino’s Agony in the Garden (Uffizi, Florence) which was painted in the 1490s. At this time, artists used various techniques for designing pictures, including transferring figures from cartoons (full size and usually detailed preparations on paper for a painting). Fragments of a pricked cartoon for the four principal figures here are also in the Uffizi.
Christ kneels on a grassy hillock, hands folded in prayer. He looks up at an angel carrying a chalice, who floats in the sky in the top left. At the front, three men slumber, heads resting on their arms or hands. Groups of soldiers, wearing fantastic Renaissance versions of classical armour, approach from the sides.
This is the Agony in the Garden, as told in the Gospel of Mark (14: 32–43). At Gethsemane, Christ – knowing that he has been betrayed and is to die – takes Peter, James and John away from the other apostles and asks them to watch while he prays. As he asks God to ‘take away this cup from me’, the apostles repeatedly fall asleep. They fail to see the approaching soldiers, here led by Judas, who carries a bag holding the 30 pieces of silver given to him by the Jewish priests for leading them to Christ.
This painting was once thought to be by the young Raphael, but is now attributed to Lo Spagna, another pupil of Pietro Perugino. It is based largely on Perugino’s Agony in the Garden (Uffizi, Florence), which was painted in Florence in the 1490s, although our painting’s composition is less geometrically controlled and the relative scale of some figures is unconvincing: Christ is too large compared to the apostles and the main group no longer form an approximately equilateral triangle. Individual figures derive from other works by Perugino – the apostle on the right seems to be taken from his Transfiguration (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome), while the one opposite him is essentially the same figure rotated 90 degrees to achieve a balanced pair. The soldier leading the group on the right is based on The Archangel Michael, painted by Perugino between 1496 and 1500, making it likely that our painting was made after 1500.
Artists at this period used various techniques for designing pictures, including transferring figures from cartoons. Fragments of a pricked cartoon for the four principal figures in this painting are in the Uffizi, Florence. A closely related figure of Christ in Christ at Gethsemane is perhaps also by Lo Spagna.
