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Scala/Art Resource, NY

“Take away this cup,” Jesus prays in Luke 22:39–46, figuratively asking God to end his suffering. Rather than falling to the ground in anguish as in Mark’s Source A, in Luke and in this 15th-century bronze relief by Donatello, Jesus appears as a model Christian, praying on his knees—the standard position for prayer among Christians by Luke’s time.

Sculpted for the pulpit of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, the relief portrays the angel who strengthens Jesus (Luke 22:44) as proffering Jesus a cup—a chalice—so that Jesus appears as a churchgoer, kneeling to receive the Eucharist at mass. In the foreground, 11 disciples, heavy with sleep, miss the miraculous event transpiring behind them.