The Capture of Christ 

Dirk Bouts painted "The Capture of Christ" with oil on panel. Immediately noticeable is the painting’s vertical orientation and tightly packed figures, which create a claustrophobic, compressed space. Dark tones dominate, punctuated by sporadic, intense bursts of color on clothing. The overall effect of the composition evokes an emotional response of unease and tension. Bouts’s composition departs from traditional representations of this scene. The formal choices—close cropping, flattened perspective, and the arrangement of figures—suggest a claustrophobic and psychologically charged environment. Bouts is not simply depicting a biblical event but is also exploring themes of betrayal, human fallibility, and the nature of faith. Note how the artist destabilizes the conventional reading of the subject, challenging the viewer to reconsider established meanings through formal manipulation. The very structure of this painting, with its compositional and spatial anomalies, invites us to continually reinterpret its content.