Palmesel
Lindenwood and polychromy
Germany, Lower Franconia, ca. 1470-1480
Said to be from the church at Mellrichstadt in Bavaria (Unterfranken), north of Schweinfurt
The German word Palmesel (palm donkey) refers to the statue of Christ on a donkey, mounted on a wheeled platform, which was part of Palm Sunday processions in many German-speaking regions until the Reformation. In the Middle Ages these processions, which reenacted Christ's entry into Jerusalem mounted on an ass, were lively pageants in which hymns were sung, palms strewn, and clothes spread on the ground before the Palmesel. The figure of Christ retains, in contrast, an air of quiet majesty. The donkey's hooves and the fingers on Christ's hands are restored; the platform and wheels are modern.
The Cloisters Collection, 1955 (55.24)
The Cloisters, a branch of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the art and architecture of the European Middle Ages, is located in Fort Tryon Park near the northern tip of Manhattan island on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. The Cloisters collection contains approximately five thousand European medieval works of art, with a particular emphasis on pieces dating from the twelfth through the fifteen centuries.
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