Предательство Христа

Anthony van Dyck was only about 21 when he painted this, still working in the Antwerp studio of Peter Paul Rubens, the most famous painter in Europe. The subject is the moment Judas kisses Christ in the dark garden and the soldiers close in with torches and rope. Van Dyck was drawn to it enough to paint the scene several times over these few years. One version he gave to Rubens, who admired it and kept it in his own house until he died. Soon after, the young man left for Italy to make his own name. You can already see what he took from his teacher here, the crush of struggling bodies and the torchlight tearing figures out of the blackness.