Prayer in the Garden – Galleria degli Uffizi – Florence

The panel is the third painting realized by Perugino for the friars who lived in the convent of the Ingesuati outside the walls of the city of Florence, a place that Giorgio Vasari described as rich in elegant architectural decorations, and that was unfortunately destroyed during the siege of 1531.

In the lower part of the painting, the apostles are shown sleeping while Jesus is kneeling on a rock, praying towards an angel dressed in a yellow robe showing him the Eucharistic chalice, allusive to the prayer just uttered by Christ; in the background, a group of armed men led by Judas and other soldiers are approaching to capture the Messiah. The scene happens in a landscape that shows a valley where a river peacefully flows out of an imaginary fortified citadel.

When the Ingesuati moved and left the convent, they took the three paintings to their new home in San Giovannino della Calza; from there, the paintings were transferred to the Galleria dell’Accademia and finally to the Galleria degli Uffizi where they had been since 1919.

The painting is preserved at the Galleria degli Uffizi.