Tree of Jesse facts for kids

Ivory panel from 12th century Germany, showing a tree of Jesse.

The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Christ, shown in a tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David and is the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a genealogy.

Images for kids

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  Miniature, Jacques de Besançon, Paris, c.1485. Showing 43 generations. Below, the birth and childhood of Mary

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  (Painter related to) Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1500, oil on panel

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  A typical Jesse Tree of the Late Medieval period, detail of the Spinola Hours of Ludwig by the Master of James IV of Scotland, (1510-20)

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  The Jesse Tree in the Lambeth Psalter, unknown English miniaturist, (1140s). Many characteristics of later representations are fully developed.

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  The world-famous fourteenth-century 'Jesse window' at St Mary's Church Shrewsbury

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  The upper section of the Jesse Tree window at Chartres Cathedral showing Jesus at the apex and Mary below him

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  Two panels, all that remain, of a Jesse Tree window of the late 12th or early 13th century, Canterbury Cathedral

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  A 19th-century window from Notre Dame, Paris

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  The Virgin Mary from the ceiling of St Michael's, Hildesheim

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  Relief of Tree of Jesse, Cathedral St. Peter, Worms, Germany

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  The oldest complete Jesse Tree window is in Chartres Cathedral, 1145.

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  The beginning of the Gospel of Matthew from the Fécamp Bible shows the initial letter decorated with a Jesse Tree

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  Scherenberg Psalter, c. 1260. Mary and Child, David and Solomon above, Isaiah and Jeremiah below. Note the doves in the medallions.

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  Wall painting c. 1380–90 from Toruń in Poland. Unusually, a Crucifixion occupies the middle of the Tree, with Christ in Glory above.

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  The bottom of a large stone relief from Worms Cathedral, end of the 15th century, previously in the demolished cloister.

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  16th (?)-century painting from the Cathedral at Limburg

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  Michael Willmann 1678, Polish, oil on canvas, "Family tree of Christ", Church Of The Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Krzeszów.

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  Basilique Saint-Quentin, France

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  Rose window from the Basilica of St Denis, Paris, showing Jesse at the centre. This is not the earliest St Denis Jesse window, which is vertical like Chartres.

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  Plaster cast of the "Root of Jesse", originally from Westminster Abbey, Royal Architectural Museum, UK. Albumen print, c. 1874

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  Tree of Jesse on stained glass windows of Virga Jesse Basilica, Hasselt (Belgium)

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  Tree of Jesse on stained glass windows by Sergio de Castro for the Collégiale de Romont (Switzerland), 1980.

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  Holy church Maria of the Castle, Olivenza (Spain)

See also

In Spanish: Árbol de Jesé para niños