The Prayer in the Garden

One of the most recurrent images in neo-Hispanic Christian iconography is that of Christ at prayer on the Mount of Olives, where He went with His disciples after celebrating the Last Supper. Echave Orio revisits this passage from the Bible in order to affect the viewer's senses in such a way that his soul will be uplifted by the contemplation of this scene. The work is transversally divided into two elliptic spaces pertaining to different realities. Christ stands out on the right-hand side kneeling in prayer. In accordance with tradition, clad in a blue robe and a red tunic, He is looking heavenward with his hands clasped in a posture denoting redemption. In the upper left-hand corner of the work, the heavenly realm is evoked by the figure of an angel who is holding a chalice symbolizing the blood which Jesus will spill in His passion and death. The visual interplay between Christ and the heavenly messenger —who is depicted after the manner of Martín de Vos -assigns equal prominence to both figures, thanks to their similar size and the artist’s use of light. This painting, whose composition is reminiscent of certain works from the Spanish and Flemish Renaissance, influenced other neo- Hispanic artists such as Luis Juárez. It passed to the MUNAL from the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery in the year 2000.