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

Miniature, Jacques de Besançon, Paris, c.1485. Showing 43 generations. Below, the birth and childhood of Mary
Jan Mostaert - Tree of Jesse - WGA16298.jpg

(Painter related to) Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1500, oil on panel
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)
The Jesse Tree in the Lambeth Psalter, unknown English miniaturist, (1140s). Many characteristics of later representations are fully developed.
The world-famous fourteenth-century 'Jesse window' at St Mary's Church Shrewsbury
The upper section of the Jesse Tree window at Chartres Cathedral showing Jesus at the apex and Mary below him
Two panels, all that remain, of a Jesse Tree window of the late 12th or early 13th century, Canterbury Cathedral
A 19th-century window from Notre Dame, Paris
The Virgin Mary from the ceiling of St Michael's, Hildesheim
Relief of Tree of Jesse, Cathedral St. Peter, Worms, Germany
The oldest complete Jesse Tree window is in Chartres Cathedral, 1145.
The beginning of the Gospel of Matthew from the Fécamp Bible shows the initial letter decorated with a Jesse Tree
Scherenberg Psalter, c. 1260. Mary and Child, David and Solomon above, Isaiah and Jeremiah below. Note the doves in the medallions.
Wall painting c. 1380–90 from Toruń in Poland. Unusually, a Crucifixion occupies the middle of the Tree, with Christ in Glory above.
The bottom of a large stone relief from Worms Cathedral, end of the 15th century, previously in the demolished cloister.
16th (?)-century painting from the Cathedral at Limburg
Michael Willmann 1678, Polish, oil on canvas, "Family tree of Christ", Church Of The Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Krzeszów.
Basilique Saint-Quentin, France
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.
Plaster cast of the "Root of Jesse", originally from Westminster Abbey, Royal Architectural Museum, UK. Albumen print, c. 1874
Tree of Jesse on stained glass windows of Virga Jesse Basilica, Hasselt (Belgium)
Tree of Jesse on stained glass windows by Sergio de Castro for the Collégiale de Romont (Switzerland), 1980.
Holy church Maria of the Castle, Olivenza (Spain)