The Garden of Gethsemane

This painting depicts Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, immediately before his arrest. The work is thought to date around 1518, in Cranach's middle period. After the Last Supper, Christ went to the Mount of Olives, accompanied by his disciples. Three of his disciples, Peter, Jacob and John, accompanied him to the Garden of Gethsemane, located at the base of the Mount, but then they left him and he prayed alone. Here Christ is seen in the middle of the composition on a slight rise on the ground. His three disciples sleep in the foreground, contrary to Christ's orders. An angel appears to the upper right of Christ, bearing a sacred chalice and Cross, while in the background a group led by Judas appears, come to arrest Christ. The darkening sky presents a strange contrast between dark clouds above and bright sunset below, alluding to Christ's suffering and the tragedy to come. The landscape depiction is reminiscent of the Danube school style, suggesting that this work is not that far removed from Cranach's early period works painted during his Viennese period. There is another work by Cranach at the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden of the same subject but larger overall, and the majority of motifs in that painting accord with those seen here.(Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 11)