Entry into Jerusalem

This panel by Pieter Coecke was once part of a large Passion retable. Other panels are in Trier, Berlin, Cape Town and Lisbon. In the foreground, several figures are cheering Christ on his entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. The Mount of Olives, where Jesus and his disciples have come from, can be seen in the distance. The painting gives a very lively impression. The movement in the composition, along with the abundance of human figures and the bright, fresh colours, creates an exuberant whole. A striking element of this painting is the unusual contortions of the figures. The architecture of the city wall works like a sort of stage set for the scene in the foreground. The bright colours are characteristic of the wings of a large retable, as the pictures had to be seen and understood from a great distance by people who were mostly illiterate. Despite the high quality of this painting, Pieter Coecke would most probably have been involved only in the initial design. On the reverse is a barely legible painting of St Trudo, who was revered mainly in Sint Truiden. St Trudo is depicted holding a palm branch and the abbey of Sint Truiden. The two saints depicted on the reverse of the panels in Cape Town (St Libert) and Trier (St Eucherius) can also be connected to Sint Truiden. The retable was therefore undoubtedly made for the abbey church there.