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Abstract
The Tree of Jesse appears in Christian iconography possibly towards the close of the eleventh century; in any case it is found frequently in the twelfth century and in later Gothic art.2 Certain prototypes can be recognized even as early as the ninth century. At first the stem appears in Jesse's hand, then it rises from a point immediately behind the center of his reclining body, finally it rises from his navel. The ultimate flower of the tree is always Jesus, but the formula so develops that the Virgin becomes the most conspicuous figure (as in Fig. 1); moreover, as the branches multiply the whole becomes a veritable genealogical tree of the kings of Judea. The essential elements of the developed type are the representation of a kind of tree of life rooted in the navel of the recumbent Jesse and having for its ultimate flower a manifestation of the deity.