Agony in the Garden
1497–1500
Medium
Woodcut
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Julia H. Manges, in memory of her husband, Dr. Morris Manges, 1960
Accession Number
60.598.57
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where Albrecht Dürer's *Agony in the Garden (1497–1500) a pivotal moment from Christ's Passion. This woodcut depicts Jesus in the Garden of Gethsem, sweating blood in agony as he prays for strength before his arrest, while his sleeping apostles—Peter, James, and John—fail to keep watch. The scene evokes profound suffering and human vulnerability, themes central to Christian devotion during the late 15th century. Dürer a master of the Northern Renaissance, elevated woodcuts from simple book illustrations to works of fi...
About the Artist
Albrecht Dürer · 1471–1528
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) stands as the preeminent figure of the Northern Renaissance and arguably the most influential artist in the history of printmaking. Born in Nuremberg on May 21, 1471, and dying in the same city on April 6, 1528, Dürer revolutionized the status of the artist in Northern Europe, transforming printmaking from a commercial craft into an independent fine art and establishing ...