Scenes from the Passion of Christ: The Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, and the Descent into Limbo [entire triptych]

Andrea Vanni, a leading painter of late Trecento Siena and close associate of Saint Catherine of Siena, created this Passion triptych around 1380. The three-panel format depicting the Agony in the Garden, Crucifixion, and Descent into Limbo served as a portable devotional object for private meditation on Christ's suffering and redemption. Vanni's work bridges the courtly elegance of Sienese Gothic tradition with the growing narrative expressiveness that characterized late fourteenth-century Italian painting.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with extensive gold-leaf ground, the triptych features Vanni's characteristic elongated figures and richly patterned textiles. The hinged format allowed the wings to close over the central Crucifixion, protecting the painted surfaces during transport.