Studio of El Greco, 'The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane', 1590s

The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane

Studio of El Greco

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This work is based on an original by El Greco which now hangs in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio. It’s a scene of Christ in torment, moments before his arrest – we can see the soldiers coming for him to the right.

According to the Gospels, Christ retreated to the garden of Gethsemane to pray, asking God to spare him the ‘cup of suffering’ that he knew awaited him. Here an angel shrouded in supernatural light, stronger than that of the moon beyond, presents Christ with the cup. He is shown accepting his inevitable suffering.

When this painting was purchased as an El Greco in 1919, the National Gallery was accused of buying a picture by a madman: people were shocked by the acid colours and distorted forms that the artist used to heighten the picture’s emotional and spiritual drama.

In-depth

El Greco was very successful in his own lifetime, however, and employed numerous assistants to help him produce enough works to satisfy the demand for his pictures. This one was probably painted by his studio after El Greco’s original, now in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.

The scene shows Christ’s struggle between his humanity and his divine mission. He has retreated to Gethsemane, an olive grove just outside Jerusalem, to pray; only a few olive tree saplings make reference to the setting. Christ knows he will soon be arrested and killed. He fears death, but understands that his sacrifice will redeem mankind. El Greco expresses Christ’s spiritual and emotional torment through his surroundings, where the natural and the supernatural do battle. A full moon glows, illuminating the surrounding clouds, while another source of light – a much brighter, supernatural light – shines down on Christ.

A heavenly vision of an angel holding a chalice has appeared before him. In the Gospel accounts of the episode, Christ prays that he will have the courage to drink from the ‘cup of suffering’. In the distance we can see Roman soldiers making their way to arrest him; the Crucifixion is inevitable. The picture endorses the importance of the sacrament of the Eucharist – the cup also represents the chalice that holds Eucharistic wine – and obedience to God’s will.

Three of Christ’s disciples are shown cocooned in what could be clouds or a sort of cave. They are the ultimate sign of human weakness: they have not been able to stay awake to support Christ. Their unusual oval enclosure might be a reference to the Byzantine painting tradition which El Greco, a native Cretan, had been trained in, where figures are enclosed in abstract shapes to separate them from other parts of the narrative.

El Greco made the original painting upon which this is based when he was in Toledo, a town about 40 miles from Madrid where he had settled by 1577. El Greco and his studio produced several versions of this composition, suggesting it was popular among his clients. They clearly admired the artist’s ability to communicate the beliefs of the Catholic faith so vividly through his expressive painting style.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane
Artist: Studio of El Greco
Artist dates: 1541 - 1614
Date made: 1590s
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 102 × 131 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1919
Inventory number: NG3476
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Possibly to be identified with one of the paintings of this subject in the El Greco inventory of 1614. Formerly in the Convento de las Salesas Nuevas, Madrid, whence it was bought, apparently in May, 1919, by Lionel Harris; purchased from him (with the aid of the Lewis, National Loan Exhibition and Temple-West Funds) in November, 1919. Greek Art Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1946 (no. 348); Arts Council Spanish Paintings Exhibition, 1946 (no. 6) and 1947 (no. 12).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2009

The Discovery of Spain: British Artists and Collectors, Goya to Picasso

National Gallery of Scotland

18 July 2009 - 11 October 2009
2012

El Greco and Modernism

Museum Kunstpalast

28 April 2012 - 12 August 2012
2015

El Greco at the National Gallery

The National Gallery (London)

26 February 2015 - 2 August 2015
2019

Young Bomberg and the Old Masters

The National Gallery (London)

27 November 2019 - 1 March 2020

Bibliography

1910

F. de B. de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo: Ó, nuevas investigaciones acerca de la vida y obra de Doménico Theotokópuli, Madrid 1910
1920

W.G. Constable, 'The New El Greco in the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XXXVI/204, 1920, pp. 142-5
1920

O.S. Scott, 'The New El Greco at the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XXXVI/205, 1920, p. 203
1924

C. Holmes, 'A Byzantine Panel from Crete', The Burlington Magazine, XLV/261, 1924, pp. 261-2
1941

K. Pfister, El Greco, Zürich 1941
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1969

T. Frati, L'opera completa del Greco, Milan 1969
1969

J. Plesters, 'A Preliminary Note on the Incidence of Discolouration of Smalt in Oil Media', Studies in Conservation, XIV/2, 1969, pp. 62-74
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1971

J. Gudiol, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, El Greco, 1541-1614, Barcelona 1971
1976

N. von Holst, Creators, Collectors and Connoisseurs: The Anatomy of Artistic Taste from Antiquity to the Present Day, London 1976
1980

E. Harris and P. Troutman, The Golden Age of Spanish Art: From El Greco to Murillo and Valdés Leal: Paintings and Drawings from British Collections, (exh. cat. Nottingham University Art Gallery, 11 February - 29 March 1980), Nottingham 1980
1981

J.M. Pita Andrade, El Greco, Milan 1981
1985

J.M. Pita Andrade, 'Sobre la presencia del Greco en Madrid y de sus obras en las colecciones madrileñas del siglo XVII', Archivo español de arte, LVIII/232, 1985, pp. 321-31
1988

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
1989

D. Davies et al., El Greco: Mystery and Illumination (exh. cat. Scottish National Gallery, 29 July - 15 October 1989), Edinburgh 1989
1993

J.Á. Lopera, El Greco: La Obra Esencial, Madrid 1993
1999

J.Á. Lopera, El Greco: Identity and Transformation. Crete, Italy, Spain (exh. cat. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, 3 February 3 - 16 May 1999; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 2 June - 19 September 1999; The National Art Gallery - Alexandros Soutzos Museum, 18 October 1999 - 17 January 2000), Madrid 1999
2000

J. Camón Aznar, 'La oración en el Huerto de El Greco', Boletín del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar, 82, 2000, pp. 359-60
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2004

X. Bray et al., El Greco (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 7 October 2003 - 11 January 2004), New Haven 2004
2009

C. Baker, D. Howarth and P. Stirton, The Discovery of Spain: British Artists and Collectors (exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh), Edinburgh 2009

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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Studio of El Greco, 'The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane', 1590s

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

Related works