The ''

Agony in the Garden The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in the life of Jesus, which occurred after the Last Supper and before his betrayal and arrest, all part of the Passion of Jesus leading to his crucifixion and death. This episode is describ ...

'' is an early painting by the Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

master

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, ...

, who created it ca.1459–1465. It is a

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

painting on panel and is now in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

. This work portrays the

with Christ kneeling on the

Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...

in prayer, with his disciples

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

sleeping near to him. In the background,

Judas Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of ...

leads the Roman soldiers to capture Christ. The picture is closely related to the similar work by Bellini's brother-in-law,

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...

, also in the National Gallery. It is likely that both derived from a drawing by Bellini's father,

Jacopo Jacopo (also Iacopo) is a masculine Italian given name, derivant from Latin ''Iacōbus''. It is an Italian variant of Giacomo (James in English). * Jacopo Aconcio (), Italian religious reformer * Jacopo Bassano (1592), Italian painter * Iacopo Bar ...

. In Bellini's version, the treatment of dawn light has a more important role in giving the scene a quasi-unearthly atmosphere.

Background and history

Giovanni Bellini is widely recognized as not only one of the foremost artists of

Quattrocento The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...

Venice but of the entirety of the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

. Bellini's art often focused on landscapes with devotional subject matter, where his bold usage of color unites subject and form. Bellini almost exclusively spent the majority of his life in his native

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, seeming to have only ventured out once to sketch the landscape off the

Adriatic coast The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to ...

in the mid-1470s. This deep appreciation for the Northern Italian countryside finds its way into ''Agony in the Garden'', where the three hill settlements in the background are evocative of Italian towns of the time, transporting this biblical event tangibly to the contemporary Italian viewers of his work. The painting was amongst five paintings including Bellini's ''Portrait of a Mathematician'' that was damaged in a

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

protest by Grace Marcon (aka Frieda Graham) in 1914. She was sentenced to six months but she was released the next month, weak from a hunger strike protest.

Influences

Bellini's ''Agony in the Garden'' is displayed side-by-side with Andrea Mantegna's work of the

same name ''Same Name'' is an American reality television series in which an average person swaps lives with a celebrity of the same first and last name. It premiered on July 24, 2011 on CBS. The series received low ratings, and CBS pulled it after four-ep ...

in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

. Mantegna was Bellini's brother-in-law, and his influence on Bellini is apparent; in fact, Bellini's rendering of ''Agony in the Garden'' was long-believed to be painted by Mantegna. These two works were inspired by an earlier drawing by Giovanni's father and Mantegna's father-in-law, Jacopo Bellini. Bellini's work marks a noticeable shift from the even illumination and equality in the intensity of the forms, seen in Mantegna's painting, commonplace in fifteenth-century Italian art. While Mantegna's painting is lit by even illumination and clarity of atmosphere, Bellini's painting introduces a sense of time and ambiance, as seen in the sky's radiant illumination of light emanating from the praying Christ. Andrea Mantegna 036

Composition and analysis

''Agony in the Garden'' is an

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

painting on

wood panel A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...

, most likely painted on poplar, as is common of Bellini's wood panel works. Bellini coated the wood panel with a gesso ground and provided an intricate

underdrawing Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. Thes ...

applied with a liquid medium, which provide the painting with a great complexity in texture especially seen in the tunic of Jesus. Bellini's painting situates the viewer at a great crossroads in the life of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. The painting cannot visually represent Jesus's words "Let this cup pass from me", nor his insistence to his disciples to stay awake with him, nor his final acceptance of his fate. Yet Bellini captures the great gravity of the situation. Bellini blends the natural with the human world, which is highlighted by the figure of Christ: his hands up in prayer over a natural rock formation that takes the form of an altar. Bellini even evokes the details of sound in this silent medium of painting through his depiction of the apostles sleeping below Christ. The figure of

St. Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...

is portrayed reclined with his mouth agape in deep rest, adding realism to the scene.

Ownership

Until the mid-19th century Early Renaissance paintings were regarded as curiosities by most collectors. This one had probably belonged to Consul Smith in

(d. 1770), was bought by William Beckford at the

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

sale in 1795 for £5, then sold in 1823 with

Fonthill Abbey Fonthill Abbey—also known as Beckford's Folly—was a large Gothic Revival country house built between 1796 and 1813 at Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Thomas Beckford and architect James Wyatt. It was ...

and repurchased by Beckford at the Fonthill Sale the next year (as a Mantegna) for £52.10s. It was bought by the

for £630 in 1863, still a low price for the day.Reitlinger, I, 122

References

* * Reitlinger, Gerald; ''The Economics of Taste, Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760–1960'', Barrie and Rockliffe, London, 1961

Footnotes

External links

Official website page''Agony in the Garden'' – Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agony In The Garden (Bellini) 1450s paintings Paintings by Giovanni Bellini Paintings in the National Gallery, London Bellini Angels in art Paintings of Saint Peter Paintings of John the Apostle