Christ on the Mount of Olives

Detailed research in to Matteus Stom’s work has been undertaken only in recent decades—as is the case with all the Northern European artists strongly influenced by Caravaggio. Stom was acknowledged to be more important than his Utrecht teacher Gerard van Honthorst, and as one of the most interesting exponents of Dutch painting influenced by Caravaggio. From about 1630 up until the time of his death, Stom worked exclusively in Rome, Naples and Sicily. The Berlin picture also shows Michelangelo da Caravaggio’s poignantly realistic figure-style, combined with a highly individual clear and intense approach to colour. It is presumably part of a passion sequence with several parts painted for S. Efrem Nuovo in Naples in about 1631. Stom logically reduces the story of the Mount of Olives, traditionally presented broadly in pictorial art, with subsidiary scenes, to two half-figures. The sleeping disciples and any detailed representation of the place are omitted. Only the group of Judas and the soldiers on the right in the background, lit by the white, frayed light of a candle, indicates that the scene is taking place at night. At the same time the stylised, blatant features of this group also underline the threatening nature of the event. Christ is kneeling at a stone table, with his hands folded in fervent prayer, and turning to the angel, who is close to him both physically and spiritually. Christ’s eyes are following the angel’s sweeping, powerful gesture, pointing with both arms to indicate the goblet, mystically glowing in the sidelighting, on the left-hand edge of the picture. Contrasting light and shade have been powerfully developed in this nocturnal situation, with supernatural light striking the main figures from the left, and increasing the drama. The two wonderfully modelled heads, inclined towards each other, and their concentrated expressions form the spiritual centre of the picture, and also its precise formal centre, with the angel’s wings spanning almost the entire width of the picture. The heads are plastic and expressive, and this quality and their actions and gestures are continued in the, poetic, painterly treatment of the heavy garments with their rich folds.| Prestel Museum Guides - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2017