Agony in the Garden
1515
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 3/16 × 6 9/16 in. (23.4 × 16.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1919
Accession Number
19.73.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Albrecht Dürer, the renowned German artist of the Northern Renaissance, captures a pivotal moment from the Passion of Christ in his 1515 etching *Agony in the Garden*. The scene depicts Jesus kneeling in fervent prayer amid the olive trees of Gethane, sweating blood in spiritual torment as an angel offers comfort from above. Sleeping apostles lie nearby, underscoring themes of human frailty and divine isolation—a subject rich in Christian devotion that Dürer revisited throughout his career. Masterful in printmaking, Dürer pioneered etching techniques, using acid to bite intricate lines into a...
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 ...