Christ on the Mount of Olives

This work was painted by Fetti as an altarpiece for the Andreini family to decorate their chapel in S. Maria della Presentazione Church in Mantua, called La Cantelma. The painter arrived in Mantua from Rome in 1614 and worked there mainly as the court painter for the Gonzagas. The style of this painting aptly reflects the emotional charge of Christ´s prayer on the Mount of Olives, when the angel brings him a chalice, which Christ later accepts as an expression of his resolution to die on the cross for the salvation of humankind. The angel with the wildly billowing drapery supports Christ, who has fainted with his face deadly white - as if a hint of his approaching martyr´s death, which is also symbolically represented in the dead olive tree. Fetti was also a master at capturing the golden light coming from heaven, permeating the gleam of the dusky landscape in the background.