Christ's Entry into Jerusalem

As with Christ Presented to the People, (Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, inv. 1988-C), Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem makes up a part of the series The Aureoles of Christ. The aureoles represent six periods from the life of Christ. When one views the series from this thematic perspective, it is worthy of noting that Ensor has taken the stages of the life of Jesus rather in an intuitive way. The sequence does not, however, mesh with that of the gospels. But, it is again also not the religious story that dominates, but rather the symbolic and purely plastic scenario.
In the figure of Christ Ensor found a symbol of innocence, persecuted truth and of subjugated virtue by the attacks of an inimical crowd. The drawing then, was also an occasion for the painter to express his own conflicting relationship with the community. Beginning with the series of The Aureoles of Christ, to which this drawing belongs, the Christ theme remains very important in the work of Ensor and in some works it is clear that he identifies himself with the Christ figure. The importance for the figure of Christ is in itself not exceptional in this period. Just as in many generations, Ensor was intrigued by the Christ figure as a revolutionary or anarchist.