The Agony in the Garden
Benvenuto di Giovanni·probably 1491
Historical Context
Benvenuto di Giovanni's Agony in the Garden from probably 1491 belongs to a series of Passion narrative panels he painted for Sienese devotional contexts. The garden of Gethsemane scene — Christ praying while his disciples sleep, the angel appearing with the cup of suffering — was a standard element of Passion altarpieces depicting Christ's suffering from the Last Supper through the Resurrection. Benvenuto's treatment reflects his mature style, developed through decades of Sienese workshop practice: the figures somewhat angular and expressive in the Sienese tradition, the landscape setting combining local observation with the architectural gold of Sienese devotional convention.
Technical Analysis
The tempera on panel demonstrates Benvenuto's precise Sienese technique with vivid color, gold highlights, and careful narrative arrangement of the sleeping apostles and praying Christ within a rocky landscape setting.
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence), by May 1938;[1] purchased 1938 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] Two of the expertises relative to NGA 1939.1.318 in the files of the Kress Foundation (copies in NGA curatorial files), by Wilhelm Suida and Giuseppe Fiocco, are dated May 1938. [2] See Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:65. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2055.
