The Arrest of Christ

Niccolò Giolfino

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Niccolò Giolfino, a leading artist in the north Italian city of Verona in the 1540s, drew this scene in preparation for his oil painting "The Arrest of Christ" completed in 1546 for the Avanzi Chapel in the church of San Bernardino, Verona. The tumultuous scene depicts the moment following Judas's betrayal with a kiss that identified Christ to the Roman soldiers. Now, barely able to reach his forehead, the bearded Judas is pushed aside by the helmeted soldier who moves Christ toward the waiting rope. As if oblivious to his own capture, Christ turns his attention to Saint Peter, who has struck off the ear of the high priest's slave Malchus. Succinct strokes of white gouache forming Christ's downturned mouth convey his disappointment at Peter's anger. Here and in the other foreground figures, fine lines made with the point of the brush clearly and carefully describe the forms; in the background, by contrast, the landscape is more loosely defined in broad, rapid strokes.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art