L'Arrestation du Christ

When van Dyck painted this he was barely 20, still working in the Antwerp shadow of Rubens, the older master whose studio and manner ran the whole city. You can see the debt in the crowded, muscular bodies and the torchlit dark. It shows the moment Judas kisses Christ to mark him out for the soldiers, while off to one side Peter wrestles a servant down and cuts off his ear. The canvas is huge, well over three metres tall. It later passed through Rubens' own estate and was bought for the king of Spain, which is how it came to the Prado in Madrid, where it hangs today.