Agony in the Garden
by GOSSART, Jan, Oil on oak panel, 85 x 63 cm
This is an early work by Gossart, probably painted after his Roman sojourn in 1508-09. in Bruges. Around this time there was a particular interest in the depiction of night scenes among painters in Ghent and Bruges.
The Agony in the Garden, with an unusually youthful Christ, is brilliantly painted as a nocturne, illuminated solely by moonlight. The wings for this central subject show the Penitent St Jerome in the Wilderness (National Gallery of Art, Washington).