Entry into Jerusalem

Christ's final visit to Jerusalem, his entry into the city riding on an ass and surrounded by a crowd crying Hosanna, is given in all four gospels though with some variation of detail. In art it forms the first scene of the cycle of the Passion, and is also treated as a separate subject. It is found first in Christian art of the 4th cent. on sarcophagi from the Roman catacombs. As part of the Passion cycle it is often to be seen in the stained glass and stone carving of Gothic cathedrals. The subject seems to have fallen out of favor in the later Renaissance. The gospels variously describe the disciples as being sent to fetch an ass and its foal (Matt.), or an unbroken colt (Mark, Luke) (the colt can be the young of an ass as well as a horse). According to John, Christ merely 'found a donkey and mounted it.' Artists show the Savior seated, generally astride, with the foal often following behind. In the Eastern Church he traditionally sits 'side-saddle'—a normal way of riding an ass in the East—and is thus presented full-face, as if enthroned. In the background is a city gate out of which pour a throng of young and old. The foremost lays his cloak on the ground before Christ, while behind follow children holding branches. The canonical gospels make no mention of children but the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus relates that 'the children of the Hebrews held branches in their hands.' The branches are usually recognizable as palms, sometimes also olives. According to John the people 'took palm branches and went out to meet him.' It is from this that Palm Sunday takes its name, the festival on the Sunday before Easter commemorating the Entry and which, in the Roman and eastern Churches, includes a procession of palms. The olive branches are explained by the fact that the scene takes place by the Mount of Olives. In the background are two trees, usually olives but sometimes palms, and in each is the figure of a man. One is cutting branches 'to spread in his path' (Matt.). The other is Zacchaeus, a rich tax-gatherer, of whom Luke (19:3-4) says that 'being a little man, he could not see him for the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see him.' This incident which occurred in Jericho earlier on Christ's journey, is transferred to the scene of the Entry.