Description
The Taking of Christ , painted in 1602 for Ciriaco Mattei, depicts the moment when Judas identifies Christ with a kiss and the soldiers move forward to arrest him. Caravaggio virtually eliminates any description of the setting and compresses the figures into an extremely confined space. Judas embraces Christ while an armoured soldier reaches forward to seize him.
On the left, Saint John the Evangelist flees in terror. Christ remains still, his hands clasped before him, accepting his fate amid the violence surrounding him. The proximity of the bodies, the metallic reflections of the armour and the intense contrast between light and darkness transform the biblical episode into an immediate event. The composition works as a chain of reactions leading from flight to arrest.
