The Arrest of Christ

This panel is the first of three scenes from the predella of the Madonna del Pergolato altarpiece. The other two panels depict the Way to Calvary and the Crucifixion.

In this panel, the procession of figures proceeds along a diagonal from the left, veering in the foreground to enter the middle distance on the right, creating a sort of “fish-eye” view. The suggestively confused climax of the action takes place at the right side of the panel, in an enclosed, wooded garden of Gethsemane. Soldiers have battered down the garden’s wattle fence, while three apostles flee in terror through the trees. No less violent is the scene of St Peter throwing himself upon Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, to cut off his ear. The slender figure of Christ all but disappears in the melee.