The Large Passion: Christ on the Mount of Olives

The Large Passion: Christ on the Mount of Olives by Albrecht Dürer is a foundational work created between 1497 and 1500, utilizing the woodcut medium. This piece belongs to Dürer’s renowned series, The Large Passion, a sequence of prints chronicling the final, harrowing moments of Christ’s life. Dürer revolutionized the German tradition of woodcut printing by introducing unprecedented levels of detail, complex perspective, and emotional depth previously reserved for copper engraving. He transformed the traditionally coarse nature of the medium into a sophisticated artistic language, allowing devotional works like this to reach a much wider audience.

The scene captures Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his betrayal. Dürer depicts the profound tension of the moment, showing Christ kneeling and gazing upward toward a vision of an angel holding the cross, symbolizing the fate he is about to accept. His disciples, Peter, James, and John, are shown in the foreground asleep, oblivious to the spiritual drama unfolding.

Produced in Germany at the height of the Northern Renaissance, the print exemplifies Dürer’s mastery in using dramatic contrasts of black line and white space to convey psychological intensity and nocturnal lighting. The exceptional quality and widespread distribution of these prints were instrumental in solidifying Dürer's reputation as one of Europe’s leading artists. This significant example of early German prints is part of the permanent collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and due to its historical importance, prints of this masterwork are widely recognized within the public domain.