The Agony in the Garden

Andrea Mantegna had a preference for barren, rocky landscapes. In this painting he uses the landscape to emphasize Jesus' emotions of loneliness and fear.

Three disciples are asleep while the agonized Jesus prays to his father. He feels his end is approaching. Mantegna even shows this approaching: in the background Judas and a group of soldiers come to arrest Jesus. To the right the sky is becoming lighter: a new day has come.

This painting is often compared to a painting on the same subject by Mantegna's brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini.