Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane

The scene of the prayer in the Garden of Olives is based on the Gospel of Luke, which describes Christ being comforted by an angel while isolated in prayer. This event is depicted at the top of the panel.
Below, on the left, Christ approaches the sleeping apostles Peter, James, and John. From the right, soldiers led by Judas the betrayer come to arrest Jesus.
The painting, generally in a good state of conservation, is attributed to the Master of the Sagra at Carpi as listed in the catalogue of paintings in the Palazzo Venezia Museum compiled by Antonino Santangelo (1947, p. 38). Santangelo also noted a panel depicting the Betrayal of Judas, mentioned by Raimond van Marle (1926) in a private collection in Paris, which was accurately identified as part of the same series as the Prayer in the Garden. Serena Padovani (1975, p. 33), upon identifying two distinct hands working on the frescoes illustrating the stories of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the church of the Sagra at Carpi—previously thought to be the work of a single artist—suggested an attribution to the so-called Second Master of Carpi for this group. She also included a Crucifixion, housed in the Museo di Palazzo Venezia (inv. 10211), within this attribution. Consequently, the Christ Praying was exhibited in Vignola (Modena) in 1988 (Bacchi 1988, pp. 139–140, no. 14).
The panel is not mentioned in the partial catalogue of the Sterbini collection, edited by Adolfo Venturi in 1906. Upon its arrival at Palazzo Venezia, Hermanin (1948, p. 410) merely references the painting, reiterating the attribution to the Master of the Sagra at Carpi. Zeri (1955, p. 10, no. 146) more generically associates it with the fifteenth-century Emilian school while still considering a possible connection to the anonymous Master. In Stefano Bottari’s contribution (1958, p. 65) on the frescoes of the Sagra, the panel at Palazzo Venezia is briefly mentioned, aligning with the attribution to the Master of the Sagra at Carpi, as the scholar supported in the handouts collected by Carlo Volpe for the course held at the University of Bologna during the 1957–1958 academic year.The quality of the panel is not exceptional; however, it should be noted that the frescoes in the Chapel of Santa Caterina also display a certain degree of stylistic heterogeneity. The artist responsible for the painting in Palazzo Venezia can be seen as rooted in the same cultural tradition, with a personal reinterpretation of Giovanni da Modena’s style. This artist retains the expressive force, grotesque exaggeration of the figures’ gestures, and the dynamic rhythms characteristic of Emilian frescoes. Consequently, I recommend maintaining the general attribution to the Second Master of Carpi and dating the piece around 1420 as the Christ Praying cannot be separated from the period of the frescoes in the chapel of Santa Caterina.

Francesco Guidi

Good.

On the reverse: “Coll. Lupi.”

Rome, Collezione Giulio Sterbini (?);
Rome, Collezione Lupi;
Rome, Collezione Giovanni Armenise, 1940;
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, donated July 15, 1940.

Vignola, Rocca, Il tempo di Nicolò III. Gli affreschi del Castello di Vignola e la pittura tardogotica nei domini estensi, May–June 1988.

Van Marle Raimond, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, VII, L’Aja 1926, pp. 211-212, fig. 138; 
Santangelo Antonino (a cura di), Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo. 1. Dipinti, Roma 1947, p. 38;
Hermanin Federico, Il Palazzo di Venezia, Roma 1948, p. 410; 
Zeri Federico (a cura di), Catalogo del Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale. 3. I dipinti del Museo di Palazzo Venezia in Roma, Roma 1955, p. 10, n. 146;
Bottari Stefano, Gli affreschi della cappella di Santa Caterina nella “Sagra” di Carpi, in «Arte Lombarda», 2, 1958, pp. 65-70;
Bottari Stefano, La pittura in Emilia nella prima metà del ’400, dispense per il corso di S. Bottari raccolte da C. Volpe, Bologna 1958, p. 81;
Padovani Serena, Pittori della corte estense nel primo Quattrocento, in «Paragone», 26, 1975, 299, pp. 25-53;
Bacchi, in Benati Daniele, Bentini Jadranka (a cura di), Il tempo di Nicolò III. Gli affreschi del Castello di Vignola e la pittura tardogotica nei domini estensi, catalogo della mostra (Vignola, Rocca, maggio-giugno 1988), Modena 1988, pp. 139-140, n. 14.