Entry into Jerusalem (Fragment) 1311

Duccio painted this panel depicting Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem around 1308-1311, using tempera on wood. Here, we see townspeople reaching to gather branches from a large tree. These fronds are symbols of welcome, and indeed, of triumph, evoking the ancient Roman practice of offering palms to victorious generals. But consider, too, how a tree has been laden with symbolic weight since ancient times, often embodying the very axis of the world in cosmologies. In Christianity, the tree is, of course, powerfully associated with both the Fall of Man and the Cross. This motif has reappeared across cultures and histories. In ancient Greece, sacred groves were places of refuge and ritual. Similarly, in ancient Egypt, trees were linked to immortality and rebirth. Here, Duccio masterfully taps into the collective, subconscious memory of the tree, inviting viewers to participate in the scene’s potent emotional landscape, a mixture of joyous welcome and foreboding. And so, the image moves beyond a simple representation of an event.