Initial D: Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, cutting from a gradual

From the Getty Museum record

This delicately painted initial *D* begins the introit (a psalm or antiphon sung while the priest approaches the altar) for the Christian Mass said on Palm Sunday. Painted by an artist known as the Master of the Dominican Effigies, the scene depicts a narrative rarely found in fourteenth-century choir books: the Entry into Jerusalem. Christ lifts his hand in blessing to a boy perched in a tree who throws down palm fronds, which were associated with victory and signal the recognition of Christ as the Messiah. Highly esteemed for his attention to detail and the structure of his compositions, the artist conveyed a sense of space and movement in this small scene, including the boy’s crossed legs as he shimmies up the tree, and delicately-delineated fronds of the central tree.