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About This Work
Christ is shown prostrate on the ground in a state of spiritual anguish, while an angel descends from a cloud holding a large wooden cross. Below him, the disciples Peter, James, and John are asleep, unaware of the impending arrival of Judas and the soldiers visible near the gate in the background. The landscape is defined by rugged rocks and a distant fence, emphasizing Christ's isolation in his final hours of freedom.
This work belongs to Dürer's influential Small Passion series, which focused on the human and emotional experience of the 'Imitatio Christi' (Imitation of Christ). Dürer's technical innovations in printmaking provided the visual vocabulary for later Northern European esoteric artists who often used Passion imagery as an allegory for the spiritual 'Great Work' and internal transformation.