Arrest of Christ, from Passion of Christ
1575/1600
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate, oval cropped to image: 15.2 × 11.2 cm (6 × 4 7/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
154529
Art Historical Context
In the dimly lit Garden of Gethsemane, Jan Sadeler I captures the dramatic moment of Christ's arrest in this exquisite engraving from his *Passion of Christ*, created between 1575 and 1600. As a prominent Flemish engraver from Antwerp's renowned Sadeler family, Sadeler specialized in intricate reproductive prints that brought religious narratives to life for devout audiences during the late Renaissance. This oval composition, cropped precisely to the image at 15.2 × 11.2 cm, draws viewers into the biblical betrayal by Judas, blending tension and pathos in a style reflective of Northern Manneri...
About the Artist
Jan Sadeler, I · 1550–1600
Jan Sadeler I (1550–1600) was born in Brussels and became the most prominent member of the largest and most successful dynasty of Flemish printmakers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Sadeler family — which included Jan's brothers Aegidius and Raphael — produced an extraordinary volume of engravings that circulated across Catholic Europe, disseminating images of religious subjects, p...