He rides the donkey, a halo around his head.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Entry into Jerusalem
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
The engraver’s signature at the lower right is partly cut off in this copy. Doré moves the procession toward the city: walls and towers at the left, tall palms at the right, and the crowd filling the lower half of the sheet.
Jesus rides a donkey, with a halo; a colt walks beside it. People wave palm branches, throw branches on the road, kneel and bow to the ground, and stretch their arms toward him. Onlookers crowd the top of the walls.
From the text
- “They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their cloaks on them” (Matthew 21:7)
- “others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road” (Matthew 21:8)
- “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:9)
The artist’s own
- Palm trees and palm fronds; Matthew says only “branches from the trees,” while John speaks of palm branches (John 12:13)
- People kneeling and bowing to the ground before him
- Walls and square towers like a medieval town
Details
Jesus
The colt
A young donkey walks beside the one he rides.
Palm fronds
People in the crowd raise palm branches.
The walls
Onlookers line the top of the city walls.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.