The Agony in the Garden

Title: The Agony in the Garden

Artist: Hans Leonhard Schaufelein

Medium: Lime panel

Size: tbd.

Date: 1516

Location: Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Mark 14:37-42 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.

Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

Jesus’ exhortation that “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” is not meant in the later Gnostic or Neo-Platonic sense (the soul is intrinsically good and the body is evil), but rather that though one means well, the body is susceptible to exhaustion. In fact, there are allusions here to the servants left in charge by their master in the parable told by Jesus in Mark 13:34-37: "...keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!' "

Hans Leonhard Schäufelein (c. 1480 – 1540) was a German painter, designer, and wood engraver. As a painter he was much influenced by Dürer, his master, but his woodcuts are generally considered more original and more important than his pictures. He often signed his works HS with a little shovel (Schäuffelein).

Christ Comforted by an Angel

Title: Christ Comforted by an Angel

Artist: Paul Troger

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: tbd.

Date: c. 1730

Location: Museo Diocesano, Camerino, Italy.

Mark 14:32-36 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

The Cup of which Jesus speaks echoes the statement he made to James and John, the sons of Zebedee, when they asked that they sit next to him in his glory (Mark 10:37). Jesus replied "Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" Jesus often used the symbolism of the cup when referring to his fate, and may allude to the Cup of Judgment that appears often in the Old Testament.

Paul Troger (October 30, 1698 – July 20, 1762) was an Austrian painter, draughtsman and printmaker of the late Baroque period. Troger settled in Vienna in 1728 and became one of the best representatives of the Viennese Rococo painting. He alloyed successfully the Italian (Venetian and Neapolitan) traditions with the ideas of contemporary Austrian painting. He became director of the Academy of Art in Vienna, and influenced significant artists of the next generation, notably Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Josef Ignaz Mildorfer, Johann Wenzel Bergl.

Conscience, Judas

Title: Conscience, Judas

Artist: Nikolai Ge

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 149 x 210 cm

Date: 1891

Location: tbd.

Mark 14:26-31 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. "You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."

Peter declared, "Even if all fall away, I will not."

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times."

But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the others said the same.

Ge’s painting, ‘Conscience, Judas’, suggests that Judas’s betrayal of Jesus led him into a state of profound isolation. As Jesus was telling his disciples how he knew they would all fall away, Judas had already done so. And even as Peter denies he would ever disown Jesus, another has already done so. We may not fully know by what reasoning Judas would betray Christ, but the bribe of thirty pieces of silver was enough for Judas to arrange for a private place for the arrest of Jesus.

Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge (27 February 1831 – 13 June 1894), was a Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs. He was born into a noble family of French origin, but his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his nurse, a serf who taught him compassion and empathy for the humiliated. His late paintings on New Testament subjects were praised by liberal critics like Vladimir Stasov, criticized by conservatives as illustrating Ernest Renan (the French philosopher best known for his influential works on early Christianity) rather than the New Testament, and forbidden by the authorities as blasphemous.

The Last Supper

Title: The Last Supper

Artist: Juan de Juanes

Medium: Panel

Size: 116 x 191 cm

Date: c. 1560s

Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Mark 14:22-25 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body."

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."

This painting depicts Jesus in the midst of his benediction, the disciples crowded about, haloes acting as celestial name tags for the viewer. Conspicuously, Judas is depicted in the left foreground skulking away from the ceremony. He has no halo, instead his name is emblazoned on his stool in sharp contrast to the glory of the other disciples.

During the sixteenth century, a number of Spanish painters fell heavily under the influence of Raphael. Typical in this respect, in Valencia, are the members of the Masip family: Vicente Masip and his son Vicente Juan Masip (c. 1500–21 December 1579). In fact, the younger Masip (also Juan de Juanes, Joan de Joanes, and Vicente Juan Macip) was often called "the Spanish Raphael". His work is distinguished by a certain formalistic elaboration of the directions taken by his father, but is by no means lacking in grace or skill. His work is harmonious, rhythmically transparent and well designed. These characteristics are particularly evident in his more popular compositions, including this rendition of the Last Supper.

The Last Supper

Title: The Last Supper

Artist: Daniele Crespi

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 335 x 220 cm

Date: 1624-25

Location: Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Mark 14:17-21 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me."

They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?"

"It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

This depiction of The Last Supper by Daniele Crespi comes from the Benedictine convent at Brugora (in Brianza). It’s composition may have been modeled on the work of Gaudenzio Ferrari in the Santa Maria della Passione in Milan. Crespi depicts the apostles in full denial, each hoping it is another who will be the betrayer. Only John, who rests under Christ’s protective arm, and Judas, in the foreground having turned to face the viewer, seem calm. One is beyond suspicion, and the other already knows the truth of his betrayal.

Daniele Crespi (b. ca. 1590, Busto Arsizio, d. 1630, Milano) was a Milanese painter, known for the direct emotional appeal and simple compositions of his religious paintings. Although he died young of the plague, his output was large and his work is considered to be one of the most typical expressions of the zealous spirit of the Counter-Reformation that affected Milan at this time. He was probably a relative of Giovanni Battista Crespi, whose work influenced him.

The Man Bearing a Pitcher

Title: The Man Bearing a Pitcher

Artist: James Tissot

Medium: Watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper

Size: 24.4 x 16.4 cm

Date: c. 1890

Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

Mark 14:12-16 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there."

The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

Many commentators point out that water jars were nearly always carried by women; a man carrying one would therefore be a noticeable sign. Households that could afford slaves always had them carry the water. Further, anyone with a two-story house, the second story containing a large upper room, would be considered well-to-do. These details certainly reinforce the fact that Jesus had followers who were among the wealthy class in Jerusalem, not all of his support coming from the disenfranchised peasantry.

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (October 15, 1836 – August 8, 1902) was a French painter. Sometime in the 1870s Tissot met an Irish divorcee, Mrs. Kathleen Newton, who became his companion and the model for many of his paintings. Mrs. Newton moved into Tissot's household in 1876 and lived with him until her suicide in the late stages of consumption in 1882 at the age of 28. While visiting the church of Saint-Sulpice, Tissot experienced a religious vision, after which he embarked on his ambitious project to illustrate the New Testament. He strove for historical authenticity, making expeditions to the Middle East to record the landscape, architecture, costumes, and customs of the Holy Land, convinced that the region had remained unchanged since Jesus’ time.

The Easter Story

Title: The Easter Story

Artist: Scott McDaniel

Medium: Four Color Process comic book cover

Size: 17 x 26 cm

Date: 1994

Location: From “The Life of Christ: The Easter Story” New York: Marvel/Nelson

Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Conventionally, it is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently.

The Passion of Christ has been interpreted by artists throughout the millennia since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Each artist brings a personal perspective to the Gospel story, as did each evangelist when they documented the life of Christ. The oldest of these Gospels is that of Mark, which is generally accepted as having been written around 70 AD. Mark probably prepared his Gospel for a specific community that was suffering for it’s faith, and although the Roman church was persecuted in the time of Nero, it was by no means alone.

Scott McDaniel (b. 1965 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a comic book artist who has drawn numerous books. Notable artwork includes Marvel Comics' Fall from Grace storyline for the Daredevil series, and a long run on DC Comics Batman as regular penciller. His work can be viewed on his website http://www.scottmcdaniel.net/.