Palm Sunday in art

Interestingly, Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, although it marks the beginning of the Holy Week, doesn’t seem to be as popular as some other motifs in Christian Art. There are myriad images one can find all throughout history representing, for instance, the scenes of the Passion, reproduced over and over not only by the great masters of Western art but also by anonymous craftsmen, on canvas, in sculpture, on wooden boards, in stained glass and other media. But images depicting the Messiah entering Jerusalem riding a donkey – an animal commonly associated with peace, the iconographic opposite of a war horse — are relatively scarce. Although some great masters such as Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti and Enrique Simonet have tackled the subject, the scene is more commonly found in icons, engravings, and prints, as this slideshow demonstrates.

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