Tree of Jesse Window: The Reclining Jesse, King David, and Scenes from the Life of Jesus

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Book of Isaiah presents Jesse, an ancestor of Christ, as the root of a great tree, a symbol of his illustrious progeny. In this thirteenth-century stained-glass panel from Swabia in southern Germany, Jesse lies asleep at the bottom, and the tree rises like a dream from his side. In branches coiling from the trunk, prophets hold scrolls that foretell the coming of Christ. King David holds a harp in the roundel immediately above Jesse, and the four upper roundels contain scenes from the life of Christ, from bottom to top, the Presentation in the Temple, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Ascension. The vertical trunk unifies the panel and seems to merge with the wood of the cross in the Crucifixion scene.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art