The Passion: The Agony in the Garden

Lucas van Leyden · 1521
The Cleveland Museum of Art

This is the second plate of Lucas van Leyden’s Passion of 1521, about 11.5 cm high. Clouds, rocks and sleeping figures are all cut in close, curving lines.

Jesus kneels on a rise and prays with joined hands. An angel appears in the clouds holding a cup. Below, three disciples sleep — one with a sword across his knees. Far off at the right, a torch rises behind a garden fence.

From the text

He knelt down and prayed: “take this cup from Me” (Luke 22:41–42)

An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him (Luke 22:43)

He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow (Luke 22:45)

The artist’s own

The angel holding a cup — the “cup” of the prayer made visible

Peter’s sword already in his hand as he sleeps

Details

Jesus

He kneels and prays with joined hands.

The angel

An angel in the clouds holds a cup.

The sleepers

Three disciples sleep among the rocks.

A torch

A torch rises behind the garden fence.

Lucas van Leyden, Netherlandish, 1494–about 1533. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1923.55.2) · Engraving · 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 22:41–45And 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.