Scenes from the Passion of Christ: The Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, and the Descent into Limbo [entire triptych]

This three-part altarpiece by the painter Andrea di Vanni (Sienese, c. 1330 - 1413) reflects a growing concern among 14th-century artists to historicize the Biblical narrative. To accomplish this, Andrea endeavored to recreate, with the greatest possible accuracy, the events surrounding Christ’s Passion. From left to right, the triptych’s panels represent Christ’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and the Descent into Limbo. Each painting is embellished with provocative details, such as the droplets of blood pouring from Jesus’s face as he prays in the garden or the brutal smashing of the Bad Thief’s legs in the Crucifixion. Such details strengthen the illusion of historical actuality and grant the scenes an intimate, expressive force.

The deep, saturated hues of red, yellow, and blue create rhythmic alternations of color that play against the gold backgrounds and halos to animate the scenes. Such dazzling effects accentuate the dramatic gestures of the figures, whose robust, naturalistic forms are carefully organized to express compelling human emotion and facilitate narrative legibility. The exquisite miniaturist quality of execution, dynamic use of space, and construction of depth exemplify a skillful conflation of elements derived from the previous generation of Sienese painters, particularly Simone Martini (Sienese, active from 1315; died 1344) and the Pietro Lorenzetti (Sienese, active 1306 - 1345)brothers.

Attached by hinges, the flanking panels can be folded over the central painting to protect it and facilitate transportation. As a portable altarpiece, Andrea’s triptych may have been intended for a small chapel or domestic interior where it could be displayed or concealed according to its owner’s requirements. Whenever the altarpiece was viewed, spectators would be reminded of the difficult paradox of Jesus’s identity, as well as the name of the artist: Andrea’s signature is inscribed in golden letters along the bottom edge of the central panel’s frame.