The Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane

Look at the light. There is no single source; the angel glows, the torches flare in the distance, and a pale gleam falls on Christ's face and hands. Tintoretto learned from Titian's colour and from Michelangelo's drawing, and he said he wanted to combine the two. Here the figures are foreshortened and twisted in the Michelangelesque manner, especially the sleeping apostle sprawled across the foreground, while the paint is applied with a speed and freedom that would become his trademark. The dark greens and browns of the garden set off the reds and blues of the drapery. The composition runs on a diagonal from the sleeping figures up to the angel.

The painting is one of the earliest Tintorettos in any collection outside Europe, and it hangs on the old masters floor of the museum beside El Greco, who was himself shaped by Tintoretto's Venice. It matters because it shows the beginnings of the dramatic, theatrical style that would fill the Scuola di San Rocco with some of the greatest religious paintings ever made. Carlos Slim's interest in old masters was unusual among Latin American collectors, and this canvas is one of the reasons the collection is taken seriously. The memorable detail is the tiny procession of torches through the trees, which tells you what is about to happen.

Did You Know? Tintoretto was in his mid twenties when he painted this, years before his great cycle at the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice.