While praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest, Christ was visited by an angel, who strengthened his resolve to undergo death by crucifixion. In this small but powerful etching, Rembrandt humanized the event by stressing the physicality of the angel’s embrace. He also highlighted Jesus’s spiritual agony—his internal struggle in accepting his fate—by contrasting the diagonal rays of heavenly light falling on Christ and the angel with the more ephemeral shadows cast by the moon, peeking out from behind the scudding clouds. The dark patches, created by ink left on the surface of the plate during printing, enhance the flickering drama of this nocturnal scene.
From the “Collection of 200 Etchings” published around 1816.
Catalog Raisonné: Bartsch 75; Biörklund 57-3; Hollstein (White and Boon) 75.
Literature:
F. W. H. Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts. vols. 1-64, Amsterdam, 1954–2010, cat. no. B75, p. 40.
F. W. H. Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. 2008, cat. no. 269, p. 213, ill.
Loc: G.H. pp29b