Palm Sunday – Entrance of the Lord to Jerusalem in the painting of St. Cyril Church

Palm Sunday – Entrance of the Lord to Jerusalem in the painting of St. Cyril Church

Performing on the upper south wall of the central nave the composition “Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem”, Vrubel only testified that there was once a similar story on this plane. This information obliged the artist to try to look in antiquity and to reproduce the once existing plot here. Christ walks up to the gates of Jerusalem on the donkey, the joyful inhabitants greet him, followed by his disciples at some distance. In the background, palm trees can be seen from which children tear down the branches and throw in front of the feet of Jesus; the young boys put their cloaks under the donkey hoofs, expressing special respect, thus honoring the long-awaited Savior’s arrival in Jerusalem.

In this work Vrubel reproduced the center and right parts, his good friend and student F. Zozulin, according to his instructions, worked on the left part of the composition. The whole of it occupies a rather large area, but the viewer does not seem to notice it, because the elegant drawing seems to transform the whole painting into a peculiar miniature. The artist uses a traditional inverted perspective for ancient painting and noble discreet color, dominated by green and ochre tones.

The author is Irina Margolina