Christ's Entry Into Jerusalem 1696 - 1704

Jan Goeree made this drawing of Christ's Entry Into Jerusalem with pen and brown ink, and gray wash, around 1700-1730 in the Netherlands. This artwork shows Christ riding a donkey toward Jerusalem, welcomed by a crowd waving palms. The palm tree in the foreground with the label 'Palma Dactylifera' is not just a symbol of welcome, but also an assertion of botanical knowledge typical of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of scientific exploration. The Dutch Republic was a center for cartography, botany, and natural history. Artists and scientists collaborated to document the world, a cultural project intertwined with colonial expansion. Drawings like these were not always intended as finished works of art, but as scientific records that circulated among scholars and collectors. Understanding this drawing means situating it within the context of Dutch intellectual life, its global trade networks, and its evolving relationship with the natural world. Resources such as period texts, scientific illustrations, and archival documents can help to understand the intersection of art, science, and society in the Dutch Golden Age.