According To Dürer, Christ And Saint John At Prayer In The Garden Of Olives

Stamp of the studio of the artist CAG lower left, small traces of ink No other theme interested Albrecht Dürer more than that of the Passion of Christ. Admittedly, the meditations on the sufferings of the Saviour, between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, were not a new subject, far from it: they already formed the expected exercise for any important engraver of the 15th century, like Schongauer. Dürer, for his part, confronted it no less than six times, not counting his drawings of the Green Passion and the other non-engraved works related to a theme that literally crossed his career. These series fit into the context of the influence of the devotio moderna, of Germanic mystical piety advocating identification with the sufferings of Christ. It was also an opportunity for Dürer to address various audiences according to the treatment used for the same subject. Indeed, certain techniques, more precious and less diffused than others, like his Small Passion on copper, were reserved for a circle of learned art lovers. The xylographed Little Passion produced between 1509 and 1511 is a series of thirty-six engravings from Genesis to the Last Judgment, from which our drawing is taken, was intended to be distributed on a larger scale. The illustration of the life of Christ also constituted a dream field to try out the representation of the suffering body, of the expressive narration as well as of a generous range of emotions, towards his continuous quest for perfection. A brilliant draughtsman, Camille-Auguste Gastine benefited from the Ingresque influence diffused within the Parisian artistic milieu in the 19th century. A student of the historicist painter Paul Delaroche at the Beaux-Arts, he participated in numerous wall decoration projects. The artist is inspired here by the engraving of the master in order to represent the despair and the suffering offered in prayer by Christ and Saint John to God. Ill.1. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), The Small Passion on wood: The Agony in the Garden of Olives (Bartsch 26), plate 11, around 1510, woodcut, 126 x 97 mm, Petit Palais, Musée de la ville de Paris.