# The Arrest of Christ [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BOCCATI, Giovanni di Piermatteo]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Tempera on wood, 40 x 66 cm ## Commentary The Arrest of Christ c. 1447 Tempera on wood, 40 x 66 cm Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia This panel is the first of three scenes from the predella of the Madonna del Pergolato altarpiece. The other two panels depict the Way to Calvary and the Crucifixion. In this panel, the procession of figures proceeds along a diagonal from the left, veering in the foreground to enter the middle distance on the right, creating a sort of "fish-eye" view. The suggestively confused climax of the action takes place at the right side of the panel, in an enclosed, wooded garden of Gethsemane. Soldiers have battered down the garden's wattle fence, while three apostles flee in terror through the trees. No less violent is the scene of St Peter throwing himself upon Malchus, the High Priest's servant, to cut off his ear. The slender figure of Christ all but disappears in the melee. ## Related artworks - [Crucifixion]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Madonna and Child Enthroned with Music-Making Angels]() - [The Arrest of Christ \(detail\)]() - [The Blessed Guardato]() - [Virgin and Child with Saints \(detail\)]() - [Virgin and Child with Saints]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()