Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi)
Prayer of Christ in the Garden

1525-30
Oil on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara, Italy
Provenance: Church of St. Silvester, Ferrara, Italy

This image combines details from all four gospels. The three synoptic gospels relate Jesus' prayer that his "cup" might pass away if the Father wills it. The hilly locale follows Luke 22:39, which sets the prayer in the Mount of Olives rather than in the garden called Gethsemane. The garden is vaguely suggested by the fence in the background. Only John 18:3 adds "lanterns and torches" to the other gospels' lists of weapons carried by the crowd. And only Matthew 26:37 and Mark 14:33 name John, James, and Peter as the disciples who fell asleep while Jesus prayed. The three portray the three ages of man: beardless John on the left with his long hair, middle-aged James in the middle with his short beard, and gray-bearded Peter on the right.

The gate through which Judas leads the crowd appears in some other images of the arrest. Though not in the gospels it is implied by the idea of a garden. The angel presenting the chalice is also not in scripture, but it is common in images of this type.

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Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.