Agony in the Garden 1680 - 1743

This print, made by Robert van Audenaerde in the 17th century, depicts Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. The symbols of the angel and the cup are central to this scene of spiritual and emotional struggle. Consider the cup the angel presents to Christ: in Christian iconography, it signifies the suffering and sacrifice Christ must endure. This symbol resonates across cultures, echoing the chalice in ancient rituals, a vessel of transformation and destiny. We see reflections of this motif in earlier works, such as in Ancient Greece, where the cup or 'krater' was a symbol of transformation and communion. The anguish on Christ’s face captures a deeply human moment. Such emotional displays can be traced back through art history; recall the figures in classical Greek tragedies, their masks amplifying sorrow and despair. The agony, the torment – these are primal emotions, encoded in our collective memory, continually resurfacing in art across millennia. As you move forward, consider how these symbols reappear, perpetually transformed yet eternally resonant, in the vast theater of human expression.