Orazione nell'orto

Mantegna painted this small panel of Christ praying while his apostles sleep in the mid 1450s, and he treats the whole world as if it were carved from stone. The rocks have sharp cut edges, the road winds in hard geometric loops, the little plants look almost hammered out of metal. Above Christ, angels appear on a cloud carrying the instruments of the death that is coming. His brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini painted almost the same scene around the same time, and the two are often hung together as a lesson in temperament, Mantegna all line and rigid rock, Bellini soft with morning light and air. Down the road, so small you can miss him, Judas is already leading the soldiers up to make the arrest.