Agony in the Garden (No. 2)
by DÜRER, Albrecht, Engraving, 115 x 71 mm
Sheet No. 2 of the Engraved Passion.
The saints Peter, James and John are shown asleep. This engraving is hardly comparable in effectiveness with the woodcut version. St Peter appears somewhat laboured, pressed toward the margin. The full force of technical and stylistic reorientation is felt in this engraving, as in the one that follows; both are in the new clair-obscur manner, although printed from a single plate. The suggestion that this new style derives from a meeting with or the influence of Matthias Gr�newald is, however, highly speculative, as no evidence of such a meeting has ever been found. This engraving is closely related to the corresponding drawing from the Green Passion. However, that drawing is not in mirror image of the engraving and may postdate it.