Art Institute of Chicago
Ornament with the Tree of Jesse
Israhel van Meckenem the YoungerLinkedCulture matchlcp-05aec119625d
- Date
- 1480–90
- Medium
- Engraving on paper
- Culture
- Germany
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 27009
Israhel van Meckenem produced many densely engraved ornament prints in which tendrils overflow with wild men and women roaming the forests. The present engraving, however, depicts a sacred subject—the symbolic Tree of Jesse (the father of King David). Jesse sleeps on the central mound, but a dreamlike vision of his progeny extends upward beyond David to Christ and his mother. This visual genealogy was used to prove Christ’s royal lineage and was also one of the earliest interpretations of a “family tree.”
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300041273
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