Bible in art · Luke

Christ on the Mount of Olives

Albrecht Dürer · c. 1497–1500
The Cleveland Museum of Art

This is one of the first sheets of the Large Passion, cut in Nuremberg about 1497–1500, years before Dürer completed the set and printed it as a book in 1511.

Jesus kneels on a rocky slope with his hands joined. An angel appears among the rocks holding up a cup, and the three disciples sleep in the foreground. Far behind, armed men come through a gate in a fence.

From the text

Jesus kneeling a little way off to pray (Luke 22:41)
An angel from heaven appearing to him (Luke 22:43)
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee asleep (Matthew 26:37, 40)

The artist’s own

The cup of the prayer (Luke 22:42) made into a real cup in the angel’s hands, as painters of the time often showed it
Peter asleep with his sword already at his knee
A northern landscape of crags, ferns and a wide lake

Details

The angel

An angel leans out from the rocks, holding up a cup.

Praying

Jesus kneels with his hands pressed together, his face turned toward the angel.

Peter

Peter sleeps sitting up, a short sword resting against his knee.

They are coming

Small in the distance, soldiers come through a gate in the fence.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Ralph King, 1926.113) · Woodcut · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

Luke 22:39–46Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. When He came to the place, He told them, “Pray that you will not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. When Jesus rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” He asked. “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.”

Matt 26:36–46At that time Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He told them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” A second time He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” And again Jesus returned and found them sleeping—for their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed a third time, saying the same thing. Then He returned to the disciples and said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! See, My betrayer is approaching!”

See it at the museum’s site