Judas puts his arm round Jesus, who looks calmly ahead.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Betrayal of Christ
Jacob Jordaens · late 1650s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
After Rubens died in 1640 and van Dyck in 1641, Jacob Jordaens was the foremost painter left in Antwerp. He made this huge canvas, with life-size figures crowding right up to its edges, in the late 1650s.
By the light of lanterns and torches Judas puts his arm round Jesus to kiss him while a soldier in armour pushes forward. In front, a bald Peter swings his sword at a man sprawled on his back.
From the text
- “A large crowd armed with swords and clubs” (Matthew 26:47)
- “Greetings, Rabbi!” and the kiss (Matthew 26:49)
- Lanterns, torches and weapons (John 18:3)
- “Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest” (John 18:10)
The artist’s own
- Night lit only by lanterns and flares, a favourite effect of northern painters
- Bare-armed, muscular men in the crowd, in the manner of Rubens
- Peter as an old, bald man, as painters usually showed him
- Armour of the painter’s own century
Details
The kiss
A lantern
A lantern held up beside them lights their faces.
In armour
A soldier in a helmet pushes forward behind Judas.
Peter’s sword
A bald old man, sword in hand, bends over the fallen man.
On the ground
A man lies sprawled on his back, one hand raised against the blow.
Torches
Flames flare above the crowd at the far left.
Jacob Jordaens, Flemish, 1593–1678. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1970.32) · Oil on canvas · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).