''Entry of Christ into Jerusalem'' is an 1125

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

by the Master of San Baudelio de Berlanga, originally located at

San Baudelio de Berlanga The Hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga (''Ermita de San Baudelio de Berlanga'') is an early 11th-century church at Caltojar in the Soria (province), province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain, 8 km south of Berlanga de Duero. It is an im ...

but now on display in the

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, the Garden at Newfields and more. It is located at the corner of No ...

, which is in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. It depicts

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

and seven

disciples A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in t ...

entering

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

to the acclaim of its inhabitants.

Description

This fresco is in the Romanesque style popular in northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

during the twelfth century. The life-size figures, extending the entire height of the fresco, are marked by curvilinear patterning, schematic drapery folds, and repeated figures creating abstract designs. Jesus, riding an ass and her foal, raises his hands to bless the multitudes come to greet his arrival. These multitudes have been condensed to two kneeling figures spreading branches before him.

Historical information

San Baudelio was constructed in the eleventh century, but the frescoes were not added for another century. There are two distinct cycles: the upper walls were covered in colorful scenes from Christ's life, while the lower walls depicted hunt scenes and exotic animals indicative of the

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

influence in the region. While the two sets of images have very different subjects, there are many indications that they were created simultaneously, by artists from the same atelier if not the very same artist. The frescoes have a similar quality of line, and the draftsmanship of various human and animal figures seems related. They were also created using the same techniques: initial sketches in

buon fresco is a fresco painting technique in which alkaline-resistant pigments, ground in water, are applied to wet plaster. It is distinguished from the fresco-secco (or ''a secco'') and finto fresco techniques, in which paints are applied to dried plas ...

and

fresco-secco Fresco-secco (or a secco or fresco finto) is a wall painting technique where pigments mixed with an organic binder and/or lime are applied onto dry plaster. The paints used can e.g. be casein paint, tempera, oil paint, silicate mineral paint. ...

, details added in

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

, polished with

limewater Calcium hydroxide (traditionally called slaked lime) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca( OH)2. It is a colorless crystal or white powder and is produced when quicklime ( calcium oxide) is mixed with water. Annually, approxi ...

. Although seemingly at odds, the two sets of frescoes, religious and secular, worked together quite well considering the time and place of their creation. The unstable border between Christian and Muslim regions saw much interpenetration of ideas and people. The

Mozarab The Mozarabs (from ), or more precisely Andalusi Christians, were the Christians of al-Andalus, or the territories of Iberia under Muslim rule from 711 to 1492. Following the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania, the Christian ...

ic people in the region, who practiced Christianity with the trappings of Arab culture, would have been ideally served by San Baudelio's mixture of cultures and iconographies.

Location history

The remoteness of

Berlanga de Duero Berlanga de Duero is a municipality located in the province of Soria, in the autonomous region of Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2017 census (conducted by the INE), the municipality has a population of 902 inhabitants. Geography Berla ...

and inaccessibility of its church helped the frescoes survive for centuries, protecting them from everything but the weather. In 1927, the villagers of Berlanga sold the frescoes that had not been destroyed to an art dealer named Leon Levi. They were then dispersed to museums around the world, including the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...

, and the

Prado Museum The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

Acquisition

The IMA acquired ''Entry of Christ into Jerusalem'' in 1957 as a gift of G. H. A. Clowes and Elijah B. Martindale. It was given the accession number 57.151 and hangs in the Irving M. Fauvre Gallery by its sister fresco, ''Marriage at Cana''.

References

External links