He rides a dark donkey and blesses.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Entry into Jerusalem (Ms. Ludwig IX 19, fol. 77v, from the Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg)
Simon Bening · about 1525–1530
Getty Center, Los Angeles
This page comes from the prayer book of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, painted in Bruges about 1525–1530 by Simon Bening, one of the last great Flemish illuminators. He painted with tiny brushstrokes, like a panel painter, and framed his pages with gold.
Jesus rides a dark donkey out of a crowd. A man kneels and spreads a red cloak before him, and a boy in red sits in a tree cutting branches. Behind them a broad landscape opens onto water and hills.
From the text
- They spread their cloaks on the road (Matthew 21:8)
- Others cut branches from the trees (Matthew 21:8)
- Jesus rides the donkey (Matthew 21:7)
The artist’s own
- A Flemish town and a wide landscape behind
- Clothes of the painter’s day
Details
Jesus
In the tree
A boy in red cuts branches.
The cloak
A man spreads a red cloak on the road.
The landscape
Hills and water in the distance.
Simon Bening (Flemish, about 1483–1561). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. Ludwig IX 19 (83.ML.115), fol. 77v) · Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)