Title
The Agony in the Garden
Gallego, Fernando [in collaboration with the workshop] (Salamanca. Active 1468-1507)
Generic classification
PaintingObject
PaintingDate
1480-1488Century
Late 15th c.Cultural context / style
Hispano-Flemish GothicDimensions
60.75 x 43.38 in.Material
PanelTechnique
Oil PaintingIconography / Theme
Oración del Huerto de GetsemaníProvenance
Cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo (Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain)Current location
The University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, Arizona, United States)Inventory Number in Current Collection
61.13.44Object history
This is one of the twenty-six surviving panels from the former main altarpiece of the cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo, all of which are now in The University of Arizona Museum of Art. This altarpiece was one of the most important examples of a Late Gothic Castilian pictorial altarpiece, executed, according to an inscription, between 1480 and 1488. Although it was immediately attributed to Fernando Gallego, a painter based in Salamanca, it was soon realised that there was a plurality of styles that led to think, at first, of the participation of collaborators and, finally, of the participation not simply of collaborators, but of two different workshops (a common procedure in large works such as this one): Gallego's and that of Master Bartolomé, whose style, despite his distinctive personality, is so close to Gallego's that it is suggested that he could be an emancipated disciple of his or an artist trained in the same sources.
The altarpiece, of whose original structure it can only be stated that it was huge and had seven vertical lanes, but not how many panels it had or how they were arranged, was painted for the original Romanesque chevet of the cathedral. When this was demolished in the 16th century, it was reinstalled in the new Renaissance chevet, where it remained until the beginning of the 19th century. Once it was dismantled, it is known that there were twenty-nine panels (that is, three more than are currently preserved in Tucson). The chapter of Ciudad Rodrigo rejected several offers of acquisition from institutions with a cultural and historical-artistic interest in the panels, finally selling them in 1879 to an dealer in Madrid (José Fallola), who immediately sold them to an dealer in London (Sir John Charles Robinson). Twenty-six panels remained at that time. In 1882 they were acquired by Sir Francis Cook, a regular client of Robinson, who installed them in the family mansion, Doughty House, near London. They remained in the possession of the Cook family until the middle of the 20th century. They were then offered for sale by the firm M. Knoedler and Co., New York, and in 1954 were acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, which undertook their restoration and in 1957 gave them to the museum of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Description
The altarpiece must have had a large number of panels, which made it possible to develop an extensive iconographic programme centred on the life of Christ, preceded by the Creation and concluded by the Last Judgement. The cycle of Christ's life included numerous episodes from his childhood, public life, passion and resurrection. The panel depicts the episode of the Agony in the Garden following its traditional iconographic development. In the background, a mob of soldiers is entering, led by Judas Iscariot (who is holding in his left hand the bag with the money obtained for his betrayal), who will immediately proceed to arrest Christ. Next to Judas walks a man holding a lantern who is also carrying the rope with which Christ will be bound. He holds the index finger of his right hand to his mouth to invite silence and thus catch Christ and his disciples unawares.
Locations
XVth c. - 1879
1879
dealer/antiquarian
José Fallola, Madrid (Spain) *
1879 - 1882
dealer/antiquarian
Sir John Charles Robinson, London (United Kingdom) *
1882 - Mid XXth c.
private collection
Doughty House, London (United Kingdom) *
Mid XXth c. - 1954
dealer/antiquarian
M. Knoedler and Company, New York (United States) *
1954 - 1957
private collection
Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York (United States) *
1957 - present
Bibliography
- DOTSETH, Amanda W., ANDERSON, Barbara C., ROGLÁN, Mark A. (eds.) (2008): Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, vol. catálogo de exposición (Dallas, 2008), Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, y Philip Wilson Publishers, Londres, pp. 280-283.
- GAYA NUÑO, Juan Antonio (1958): Fernando Gallego, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, pp. 22-25.
- GAYA NUÑO, Juan Antonio (1958): "Sobre el retablo de Ciudad Rodrigo, por Fernando Gallego y sus colaboradores", Archivo Español de Arte, vol. 31, nº 124, pp. 299-312.
- GAYA NUÑO, Juan Antonio (1958): La pintura española fuera de España (historia y catálogo), Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, p. 151 (núm. 801).
- MAYER, Augusto L. (1928): Historia de la pintura española, Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, p. 139.
- POST, Chandler Rathfon (1933): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 4 (The Hispano-Flemish Style in North-Western Spain), nº 1, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts), pp. 138-145.
- POST, Chandler Rathfon (1966): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 14 (The Later Renaissance in Castile), Harvard University Press (ed. de Harold E. Wethey), Cambridge (Massachusetts), pp. 244-246.
- QUINN, R[oger] M. (1961): Fernando Gallego and the Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson (Arizona), pp. 18-37 y 105, il. XV.
- SILVA MAROTO, Pilar (2004): Fernando Gallego, Caja Duero, Salamanca, pp. 242-290.
Record manager
Fernando Gutiérrez BañosCitation:
Fernando Gutiérrez Baños, "The Agony in the Garden" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/192
Work in the public domain and in open access following the terms of the Kress Collection.
Work in the public domain and in open access following the terms of the Kress Collection.
