Agony in the Garden (Bellini) <br> Agony in the Garden (Bellini) The Agony in the Garden is an early painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, who painted it around 1459–65. It is in the National Gallery, London. It portrays Christ kneeling on the Mount of Olives in prayer, with his disciples Peter, James and John sleeping near to him. A Judas in the background leads the Roman soldiers to capture Christ. The picture is closely related to the similar work by Bellini's brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, also in the National Gallery. It is likely that both derived from a drawing by Bellini's father, Jacopo.
The Bible in film New Testament has few action scenes and little romance. During the 1950s, most of the films recounting Jesus' life were financed by church groups and played in churches. These were often film versions of the traditional Passion Play. At this time there were some successful films that involved Jesus, but they put him at a distance from the central characters and were based on novels rather than the Bible. These included the sequel to 1953's "The Robe", "Demetrius and the Gladiators", and the 1959 film "Ben-Hur". In 1966, Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" in southern