by Megan Morse

Created on: May 16, 2008

The Agony in the Garden by Giovanni Bellini was created in 1460, with egg tempera on wood. The style of this painting is representational, because it has the same scale and proportion as would a photograph.

Plastic Elements of Art

In the top left quadrant, the line segments that make up the hillside are snake-like, thin, and sweeping, and are primarily on the diagonal. The line segments of the fortress on the hill are flat as the surface of a table, connect from one segment to the other, and are primary horizontal and vertical. The long line segments in this quadrant may depict the long ordeal about to happen with Jesus, who is in the foreground of the painting.

In the top right quadrant, the lush hills are made of long connected curvy segments, while the rock formation in the top right of this quadrant are include lines that are short, rough, and disconnected, perhaps commenting on how disconnected Jesus' followers are really feeling from him. The line segments that make up the angel in this quadrant are feathery and light, which depicts the body of light coming down from the heavens.

In the bottom left quadrant, the line segments are rougher, shorter, and more disconnected from each other than in the top quadrants. The line segments of the robes, which are short and thin and create the folds of the clothing may perhaps be commenting on the men and their growing impatience of having faith in Jesus. The water behind the men is crossed with slithering lines of water, the ripples, to show the army in the bottom right of the top left quadrant as they winding across the desert like a snake or other sneaky creature.

In the bottom right quadrant, the lines of the craggy rock are short and quickly drawn, while the portion of rock on which Jesus kneels is practically smooth and has smooth outlines, which area made of connected segments. The lines on Jesus' rock may depict Jesus' calm tranquility and faith, as he is not stirred up by the commotion of his impending trial.

The visual texture of the canvas appears smooth, and if you touched a finger to the painting, you would not feel thick swatches of paint on your fingertips. The visual texture appears fine and detailed, which would be harder to achieve with thick paint being painted onto the canvas in large amounts. The implied texture within the painting has flowing hills (both top right and left quadrants), flowing water in a river (bottom left quadrant), and craggy rocks (top and bottom right quadrants).

There are masses

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