BASSANO, LEANDRO (LEANDRO DA PONTE)

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

Signature bottom right: LEANDER [D] A PONTE BASS.is EQUES F

The picture can be traced back to a signed composition by Francesco Bassano in the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota (Florida, USA) from the cycle The Passion of Christ, painted in the mid-1580s for the church of S. Antonio in Brescia. Leandro himself painted several variants of a composition on this theme. The word EQUES in the signature indicates that at the time when the work was being painted Leandro already had his noble title conferred upon him by the Doge Marino Grimani, who came to power in 1595.

Provenance: acquired by the Pushkin Museum from I.B. Nayashkova (Moscow) in 1936.