_School of Botticelli_ (1447-1510). _See_ 1034.
This is a copy of a picture by Botticelli in the Rospigliosi Palace at
Rome. In the background is a hedge of roses, Botticelli's favourite
flower. "No man has ever yet drawn, and none is likely to draw for
many a day, roses as well as Sandro has drawn them" (_Fors Clavigera_,
1872, xii. 2). And he painted them, just as he painted his Madonnas,
from life, and from everyday life--for even as late as forty years ago,
Florence was "yet encircled by a wilderness of wild rose." It should be
noticed, further, that there was a constant Biblical reference in the
flowers which the painters consecrated to their Madonnas--especially
the rose, the emblem of love and beauty. The background in Madonna
pictures is frequently, as here, a piece of garden trellis: "a garden
enclosed is my sister, my spouse" (Song of Solomon, iv. 12).