The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

The Entry into Jerusalem (folio 156 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier

1602–4

Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim

(1569–1627)
Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper
Sheet: 26.2 x 15.6 cm (10 5/16 x 6 1/8 in.); Image: 19.6 x 9.8 cm (7 11/16 x 3 7/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2005.145.156.a
Location: Not on view

Description

Jesus rides astride a female donkey, as specified in the text, and he greets a group of four men, two of whom seem to welcome him with hands extended. He follows the road to the gates of Jerusalem, which appear in the upper left corner. Father Jerome devoted only three short lines to this episode, so perhaps its selection for illustration is connected to an old and popular Islamic saying: “If Jesus’s donkey is taken to Mecca, when it comes back it will still be a donkey.”
  • before 1930s–2005
    An Indian family in Great Britain, whose grandfather brought the manuscript to England in the 1930s or 1940s
    2005
    (Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2005–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • O’Malley, John W., Gauvin A. Bailey, and Giovanni Sale. The Jesuits and the Arts, 1540-1773. 1st English ed. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2005. Reproduced: p. 354, fig. 10.41
    Carvalho, Pedro de Moura, and W. M. Thackston. Mirʼāt al-quds (Mirror of holiness): a life of Christ for Emperor Akbar: a commentary on Father Jerome Xavier's text and the miniatures of Cleveland Museum of Art, Acc. no. 2005.145. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
  • Prince Salim's Life of Christ (Manuscript Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 2, 2019-July 1, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=The Entry into Jerusalem (folio 156 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier|url=false|author=|year=1602–4|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.145.156.a