1627, Nicolas Poussin, The Agony in the Garden -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Poussin executed this painting just after arriving in Rome, when he was brimming with innovation and curiosity but had not yet attained a firm footing in the city's art world. It soon entered the collection of Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, the brother of Poussin's most significant Roman patron, the antiquarian-connoisseur Cassiano dal Pozzo. A zigzag composition unites two scenes: Christ anticipates his mortal death by crucifixion while his disciples slumber. The foreground figures' monumentality and the architecture document Poussin's fascination with the classical world, while the treatment of light in this nocturnal scene and the cascade of putti come from his interest in Venetian Renaissance painters. Poussin's rare use of a copper support made it a particularly precious artwork.
1627, Nicolas Poussin, The Agony in the Garden -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Poussin executed this painting just after arriving in Rome, when he was brimming with innovation and curiosity but had not yet attained a firm footing in the city's art world. It soon entered the collection of Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, the brother of Poussin's most significant Roman patron, the antiquarian-connoisseur Cassiano dal Pozzo. A zigzag composition unites two scenes: Christ anticipates his mortal death by crucifixion while his disciples slumber. The foreground figures' monumentality and the architecture document Poussin's fascination with the classical world, while the treatment of light in this nocturnal scene and the cascade of putti come from his interest in Venetian Renaissance painters. Poussin's rare use of a copper support made it a particularly precious artwork.