Matthias Stom (1600–c.1652), Christ on the Mount of Olives, c.1630–32, Oil on canvas, 155.7 × 204.5 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Matthias Stom was a Dutch painter active in Italy, best known as one of the most distinctive Northern followers of Caravaggio. Born in Amersfoort around 1600, little is known of his training, though his work shows clear awareness of Utrecht Caravaggisti such as Gerrit van Honthorst. By the late 1620s he was in Rome, and by the early 1630s had moved to Naples, where he painted large-scale religious works for a local devotional market. He later worked in Sicily, in Messina and Palermo, where his paintings were acquired by religious confraternities and private patrons.
Christ on the Mount of Olives belongs to his Neapolitan period. The composition depicts the moment after the Last Supper when Christ prays in the Garden of Gethsemane. The angel who appears to him holds a chalice, symbol of his coming Passion, while the dramatic lighting isolates Christ’s figure against the surrounding darkness. The emphatic chiaroscuro, broad handling of paint, and half-length figures set in shallow space reveal Stom’s dependence on Caravaggio’s example, filtered through the work of Neapolitan masters such as Jusepe de Ribera.
Paintings such as this demonstrate Stom’s ability to adapt Caravaggesque naturalism to the requirements of private devotion. His works circulated widely in Southern Italy and had a lasting influence on Sicilian painting of the seventeenth century.