Agony in the Garden
Agony in the Garden is an original artwork inspired by the moment in Gethsemane, after the last supper but before his betrayal, when Jesus Christ experiences anguish at his impending suffering and prays for deliverance saying "may this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39, Luke 22:42) before ultimately submitting to the will of God. It is an important part of The Passion described in all four of the canonical gospels.
It shows a different side to Jesus and paints him, at least in part, as a man who experiences the same doubt and weakness as everybody. He was spiritually overwhelmed by the weight of human sin he was about to bear, and feared Gods wrath against all that sin, however, on a more human level he struggled with his disappointment at the betrayal and that his disciples could not stay awake or provide support, abandoning him in his most critical hour.
At the height of his anguish an angel descends to offer comfort, strength and the resolve to fulfil the will of God. The angel is often shown in art as holding, or offering a chalice - symbolic of the "cup" of suffering that Jesus knows he must drink from.
This piece is set in a garden of olive trees, as Gethsemane was then and still is today. It is set at the crucial moment when Jesus receives celestial support, however, rather than depict an angel, I chose a simple light shining down upon his collapse to steer away from the material and allude to a more gnostic theme.
This was drawn from concept to completion on a Wacom Cintiq using a stylus and a set of commercial pencil, watercolour and oil brush sets.
This piece is A3 (11.7" x 16.5" / 297mm x 420mm) in size with the mount and frame additional to these dimensions making the final piece larger overall by approximately 6" on each axis (approx. as the framing for each instance is bespoke and therefore unique).
