The Betrayal Of Christ

The Betrayal of Christ was an unusual subject for de Loutherbourg, better known for landscapes and genre scenes, and reflects the historical and religious painting he produced alongside his more commercially successful works. The Betrayal — Judas's kiss in the garden of Gethsemane, followed by the arrest — offered the combination of nocturnal drama, compressed crowd action, and moral crisis that suited his theatrical sensibility. Torchlight, night, and sudden violent movement were compositional elements he had already developed in his sea-storm and battle paintings.

The nocturnal setting demands dramatic chiaroscuro — torchlight picking figures from deep shadow in strong tonal contrasts. The crowded scene of arrested action draws on his experience managing crowd dynamics in stage design and his battle painting tradition.