The Agony in the Garden

probably 1491

Benvenuto di Giovanni

Artist, Sienese, 1436 - before 1517

A young bearded man, Jesus, kneels and looks up at a winged angel as two groups of sleeping men huddle behind him in this almost square painting. The men all have pale skin, blond or white hair, and gold, disk-like halos. Jesus’s halo has a red cross on it as well, and it hovers over his long copper-colored hair. He wears a terracotta-red cloak over a celestial-blue robe, and he presses his hands together in prayer as he looks sharply up at the winged angel floating in the upper right corner of the composition. Smaller in scale, the angel has white wings and flowing robes, and holds a gold chalice in one outstretched hand. The angel’s head is surrounded by a flat, golden glow like a cap. The men behind Jesus, to our left, sleep in two groups in the gloomy, rocky landscape. The men wear robes in rose pink, black, scarlet red, steel blue, or brown. Closest to us are three men who lie close behind Jesus’s bare feet, while a larger group is tucked beyond a mound in the near distance. The terrain is painted with muted green, gray, and tan with a fence in the lower left corner and a rock formation rising in the middle of the landscape. Distant hills studded with trees and a few structures span the high horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition. A thick band of charcoal-gray clouds descends on the slate-blue sky above.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 8

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    painted surface: 42 × 46.7 cm (16 9/16 × 18 3/8 in.)
    overall size: 43.3 × 48 cm (17 1/16 × 18 7/8 in.)
    framed (with four other paintings): 59.69 × 283.21 × 5.4 cm (23 1/2 × 111 1/2 × 2 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.318

Artwork history & notes

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.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1940

  • Night Scenes, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1940, no. 9, repro., as Christ in the Garden.

1988

  • Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 62a, repro. (cat. by Keith Christiansen, Laurence B. Kanter, and Carl Brandon Strehlke).

Bibliography

1824

  • De Angelis, Luigi. “Notizie delle opere di Benvenuto di Giovanni, pittore senese del secolo XV.” In “Miscellanee manoscritte.” Archives of the Gallerie Fiorentine at the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, ms. 60: 2(1824): no. 18, fol. 337r.

1897

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York, 1897: 134.

1903

  • Cook, Francis. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond. London, 1903: 9, no. 55.

  • Destrée, Jules. Notes sur les primitifs italiens: Sur quelques peintures de Sienne. Brussels and Florence, 1903: 79.

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in Italy. 6 vols. Ed. Robert Langton Douglas (vols. 1-4) and Tancred Borenius (vols. 5-6). London, 1903-1914: 5(1915):164 n. 1.

1904

  • Frizzoni, Gustavo. "L’esposizione d’arte senese al Burlington Fine Arts Club." L’Arte 7 (1904): 269.

  • Fry, Roger. "La mostra d’arte senese al Burlington Club di Londra." Rassegna d’Arte 4 (1904) 118.

  • Pératé, André. “Les Expositions d’art siennois à Sienne et à Londres.” Les Arts 34 (October 1904): 12.

  • Perkins, Frederick Mason. “The Sienese Exhibition of Ancient Art.” The Burlington Magazine 5 (1904): 583.

1908

  • Jacobsen, Emil. Das Quattrocento in Siena. Strasbourg, 1908: 72.

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A New History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 3 vols. Ed. Edward Hutton. London and New York, 1908-1909: 3(1909):118 n. 3.

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. 2nd ed. New York, 1909: 148.

1913

  • Borenius, Tancred. A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. Italian Schools. Vol. I, Pt. 2. Edited by Herbert Cook. London, 1913: 7-8, no. 6, repro.

1923

  • Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 16(1937):416-417.

1925

  • Hutton, Edward. The Sienese School in the National Gallery. London, 1925: 85.

1930

  • Berenson, Bernard. “Quadri senza casa: Il Quattrocento senese – parte 1.” Dedalo 11, no. 10 (March 1930): 643.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 77.

  • Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook. London, 1932: 27.

1936

  • Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 66.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 24, no. 429.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 248, repro. 72.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 62, no. 20, repro.

1954

  • Bologna, Ferdinando. "Miniature di Benvenuto di Giovanni." Paragone 5, no. 51 (1954): 17, 19 n. 3.

  • Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York, 1954: 77.

1956

  • Laclotte, Michel. De Giotto à Bellini: les primitifs italiens dans les musées de France. Exh. cat. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1956: 35.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 84, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 14.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 158, fig. 428.

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Darrell Davisson. Benvenuto di Giovanni, Girolamo di Benvenuto, their altarpieces in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu, CA, 1966: 29, figs. 19-23.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 7, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:42.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 26, 646-647.

1974

  • Bandera, Maria Cristina. “Qualche osservazione su Benvenuto di Giovanni.” Antichità Viva 13, no. 1 (1974): 13-14, 17 nn. 40, 41.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 26, repro.

1977

  • Bandera, Maria Cristina. “Variazioni ai cataloghi berensoniani di Benvenuto di Giovanni.” In Maria Grazia Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto and Paolo Dal Poggetto, eds. Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Ugo Procacci. 2 vols. Milan, 1977: 1:314.

1978

  • Rotili, Mario. La miniature nella Badia di Cava. 2. La raccolta di miniature italiane e straniere. Cava dei Tirreni and Naples, 1978: 95, 169, fig. 39.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:65; 2:pl. 40.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 46, repro.

  • Riedl, Peter Anselm, and Max Seidel, eds. Die Kirchen von Siena. 3 vols. Munich, 1985-2006: 2(1992):644.

1986

  • Angelini, Alessandro. “Benvenuto di Giovanni.” In Federico Zeri, ed. La pittura in Italia. Il Quattrocento. 2 vols. Milan, 1986: 2:582.

1987

  • Laclotte, Michel, and Elisabeth Mognetti. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: peinture italienne. 3rd ed. Paris, 1987: nos. 28, 29.

1988

  • Wheeler, Marion, ed. His Face--Images of Christ in Art, New York, 1988: 127, no. 70, color repro.

1989

  • Hood, William. "Sienese Quattrocento Painting. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." The Burlington Magazine 131 (1989): 243.

1990

  • Carli, Enzo. "Risurrezioni a Siena." Antichità Viva 29, no. 5 (1990): 12-13, fig. 16.

1992

  • Ladis, Andrew. "Benvenuto di Giovanni at Sixteen." Rivista d'Arte 44 (1992): 307-308.

1993

  • Alessi, Cecilia. “Benvenuto di Giovanni.” In Luciano Bellosi, ed. Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500. Exh. cat. Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, Siena, 1993: 519.

  • Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 549.

1994

  • Kanter, Laurence. Italian Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I. 13th-15th Century. Boston, 1994: 201, 203 n. 1.

1995

  • _Finarte. Dipinti Antichi. Asta 534. Sale cat. Finarte, Milan, 4 April 1995: 48.

1999

  • Bandera, Maria Cristina. Benvenuto di Giovanni. Milan, 1999: 104, 148, 154, 158-163, 238-239, 240, 241, cat. 68.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 115, 120-124, color repro.

  • Alessi, Cecilia. La Confraternita ritrovata: Benvenuto di Giovanni e Girolamo di Benvenuto nello Spedale Vecchio di Siena. Asciano (Siena), 2003: 81, 104.

2004

  • Hiller von Gaertringen, Rudolf. Italienische Gemälde im Städel 1300-1550: Toskana und Umbrien. Kataloge der Gemälde im Städelschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main. Mainz, 2004: 400.

2015

  • Sallay, Dóra. Corpus of Sienese Paintings in Hungary 1420-1510. Florence, 2015: 194.

Wikidata ID

Q20174567

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