Sculpture

Agony in the Garden

Following the traditional composition of this scene with the kneeling Jesus on a rocky outcrop, angled for perspective, with small olive tree and ladder, the three disciples sleeping below, all bordered by a wattle fence, sculpted in deep relief with refined precision, head of St John, angel and chalice missing, else excellent condition with substantial polychromy remaining, especially on St Peter.

Provenance

Robert Didier has written that it is probably from a wall tabernacle, examples of which are found in the chapel of St-Antoine in Barbefosse à Havré, near Mons, as well as the church of St-Pierre in Buvrinnes. A further 2 examples are in the l'hôpital St-Jean in Bruges, one from the beginning of the 15th century, the other c. 1477. He would not exclude a provenance other than Hainaut, whereas Professor John Steyaert, currently working on a study of religious sculpture in Northern France (Hainaut and French Flanders) favours this localization. German collection to 1998. Belgian collection.

Commentary

This rare and virtuoso carved group follows the traditional composition for this station of the Passion (Luke 22.41) which is found as much in painting (including Bellini and Mantegna in Italy, Durer, Small Passion, in Germany) as in sculpture, with its contrast of above and below, agony and forgetful ignorance, arranged around an enclosed rocky garden. The deeply incised curls and complicated drapery place it towards the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. As a subject, it was especially popular in Germany and a close parallel, specifically in the treatment of the hair and beards, the angular drapery folds and St Peter’s book, is the Tilman Riemenschneider and workshop Agony of c. 1510 in sandstone, in the Katholische Pfarrkirchenstiftung St Laurentius, in Wurzburg-Heidingsfeld. Even more convincing, however, is the resemblance of the main figures, in their disposition, clothing, hands and facial characteristics, to the relief of the same subject in Buvrinnes, mentioned above.

Literature

Comte J. Borchgrave d’Altena, Retables en Pierre du Hainaut, 1968, p. 28.