Prière du Christ au Mont des Oliviers

Bernhard Strigel's Prayer of Christ on the Mount of Olives (Prière du Christ au Mont des Oliviers) belongs to his Passion cycle production for Swabian and Habsburg patrons. The Gethsemane scene, depicting Christ's anguished prayer before his arrest while the disciples sleep nearby, was among the most humanly vulnerable moments in the Gospel narrative — the divine figure experiencing genuine human fear before accepting the Father's will. Strigel's version draws on the visual conventions established by Mantegna and transmitted through German prints, combining the rocky Judean landscape with the luminous angel bearing the chalice of suffering.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.