Artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, August 30, 1727–March 3, 1804)
Title Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: The Second Prayer
Series A New Testament
Date 1786–1790
Medium Brown ink and wash over black chalk on paper
Dimensions Image: 18 1/4 × 14 1/16 in. (46.4 × 35.7 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/8 × 15 in. (48.6 × 38.1 cm)
Framed: 27 7/8 × 24 5/8 × 2 in. (70.8 × 62.5 × 5.1 cm)
Credit Line The Anthony Moravec Collection of Old Master Drawings, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2010.118
About this Work
The son of the famous Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Domenico was also a noted draftsman. His graphic style, more earthbound and rooted in observation than his father’s, bears his distinctive trembling line quality. Domenico worked in serial narratives, including his New Testament cycle, numbering at least 320 sheets. This image is one of twelve drawings from this important series in Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection (Eskenazi Museum of Art 2010.111-.122). By combining narrative elements from a variety of literary sources with details of daily life, Domenico brought new life to these biblical stories.
This image reveals Domenico’s distinctly personal and intimate approach to biblical subject matter. He made eight drawings of Jesus’s emotional struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. As with many of Domenico’s drawings, the central motif is amplified by the subtle background details.
Domenico’s lengthy meditation on Jesus’s struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane involved all three lonely prayers, which Jesus performed while his disciples slept. Here we see his second prayer, in which he prayed “more earnestly” according to Luke. On his knees at a small rocky alter, Jesus is entirely alone. The trunk of a dead tree alludes to the cross upon which he will die; its position blocking the road suggests there is no turning back. The altar sports a small vine—it could be either a grapevine, the vine of the Eucharist, or ivy, a symbol of eternal life.
