violet, from which we may gather that the truly fruitful soul is always
humble.
XXIV
FRUIT IN GARLANDS
Fruit in general signifies ‘the fruits of the Spirit--joy, peace and
love.’ And therefore the painters of Northern Italy wove peach and
plum, apples and grapes into heavy garlands, which they looped above
the place where the Holy Child sat enthroned upon His mother’s knee, or
they laid fresh, ripe fruit upon the step where the Virgin’s feet were
resting.
The wreath of fruit, when festooned behind or below a saint, was more
particularly a symbol of the good works of the righteous; when looped
above his head, it is a festal wreath equalling the victor’s crown.
Such a wreath is that of mingled fruit and flowers above the head of
Mantegna’s ‘Triumphant Saint George.’[348]
But the fruit in many of the devotional pictures of the earlier
Venetian masters would seem, like the rose gardens of Florence, to be
partly votive. They wished to give of their best, and the cool fruit
which came in high-piled boats to the gardenless city among the lagoons
seemed infinitely precious to them--more precious, for they were a
practical race of traders, than the fragile blossoms of ephemeral
flowers. Besides, except for pinks, which, judging from various
pictures, grew then as now in pots along the balconies, flowers to
serve as models were rare in Venice.
Garlands of fruit, excellently modelled but somewhat wanting in
softness and bloom, are especially remarkable in the work of the
pupils of Squarcione, who taught in Padua during the last half of the
fifteenth century. This famous School of Art is known to have been well
furnished with ancient marbles of Greek and Roman origin, and it is to
be supposed that there the pupils acquired a love for the classical
festooned wreath. Mantegna’s wreaths, and those in the earlier work
of Crivelli, are firmly bound and formal. But later, Crivelli laid
classicism aside, painting fruit with a freedom and profusion which is
quite his own, though there is ever the feeling that it is sculptured
and coloured stone, not soft and perfumed fruit-flesh. He, in one
picture, paints fruit decoratively, bound with its foliage into a sort
of bower for the Virgin, places it symbolically in the hand of the
Infant Christ, and also lays it as a votive offering at the Virgin’s
feet.[349]
In a picture by Giorgio Schiavone, another pupil of Squarcione, odd
little angels offer dishes of fruit to the Infant Christ.[350]
But, except in Northern Italy, fruit in garlands was more used in
decoration than in devotional pictures. Magnificent wreaths of carved
stone fruit and foliage droop on either side of the great circular
windows of Siena Cathedral; there are heavy painted wreaths of it
beneath the figures of the Apostles in the chapel of the Vatican
decorated by Fra Angelico; and the Della Robbias enclosed some of
their most lovely works, with apples, pears, lemons, pine-cones and
pomegranates, growing stiffly and beautifully into a symmetrical
border. Fruit-forms were, indeed, infinitely better suited to the
Della Robbia medium than were the delicate petals of flowers.
The Florentines, too, often placed their Madonnas in elaborate wooden
frames of carved and gilded fruit--remembering perhaps the epithet of
Saint Bernard, who styled the Virgin Mary ‘the sublime fruit of the
earth,’[351] finding in her the fulfilment of the prophecy:
‘In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.’[352]
But many of these garlands of fruit, or of mixed fruit and flowers,
are entirely decorative with no hidden meaning. They were a very usual
festal decoration in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and when
swung above the head of Memling’s ‘Enthroned Madonna,’[353] they are
no more a symbol than is the carpet beneath her feet, for an almost
identical wreath, held in place by the same small _putti_, is above the
throne in Gerard David’s ‘Judgment of Cambyses,’[354] while one which
is very similar hangs above the enthroned ‘Emperor Sigis mondo,’[355]
incised upon the pavement of Siena Cathedral. These wreaths distinguish
the throne as being more than an ordinary seat, but, beyond vaguely
indicating pomp and splendour, they have no special meaning.
[Illustration: _The Sacred Heart (19th Century--German)_]
THE PARADISE OF GIOVANNI DI PAOLO
In the Gallery of Siena there is a panel by Giovanni di Paola, the
contemporary and occasional assistant of the better-known Sano di
Pietro. The panel, which was painted in 1453, represents the Last
Judgment, and, naturally, it is the portion of it which is given to
Paradise, that is interesting because of its flower symbolism.
Heaven is depicted as a hill, for in the 15th century the prophet
Esdras was the authority relied on for descriptions of the heavenly
land, and Paradise, he says, has ‘seven mighty mountains on which grow
roses and lilies.’[356]
At the summit of the hill there are six fruit-bearing trees, for the
prophet continues, ‘Saith the Lord, ... I have sanctified and prepared
for thee twelve trees laden with diverse fruit.’[357]
There are six trees, not twelve, in this picture, for, by a convention
common enough in early art, where the space did not admit of a certain
number, that number was halved.
Beneath the trees wander the happy souls, of whom the greater part
appear to have taken holy orders when in the flesh. Those just arrived
are welcomed joyfully by the angels or by friends who had preceded them.
On the grassy bank there are lilies, the symbol of purity; the
carnation, equalling the rose as the flower of divine love, the violet
of humility and the strawberry, whose fruit symbolises the good works
of the righteous.
These are the values of the flowers as symbols; as emblems they
translate this Heaven as a perfected counter-part of the Church upon
Earth, ‘for’ says Durandus, commenting on the text, ‘See the smell of
my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.’ ‘This
field is the Church, which is verdant with flowers, which shineth with
virtues, which is fragrant with good works; and wherein be the roses
of martyrs, the lilies of virgins, the violets of confessors, and the
verdure of beginners in the faith.’ Following the same authority, the
trees are emblems of righteous men, rich in good works.[358]
So for three different reasons the flowers in this painted Paradise
appealed to the devout. They help to give a realistic picture of
Heaven, presenting in form and colour the description of the prophet;
they express mystically the Christian graces; they represent, to the
instructed, the bands of martyrs, the choirs of virgins, and the
countless happy souls for which the painter had no space.
The little childish beings, with wounds upon their necks or sides, are
the Holy Innocents. Two climb up the lilies which are their attributes
as virgin martyrs. Though unbaptised, the Innocents, since they died
for Christ, were permitted to enter Heaven.
In the foreground, among the violets, are hares, the hare being an
ancient emblem of a Christian, founded upon the words of Tertullian:
‘Upon us, as were we hares, is the hunt let loose.’[359]
Also the early naturalists averred that the hare slept with his eyes
open; whence the prayer of Saint Mectilda:
‘Grant, O Lord, that, like the hare, I may watch for Thee in Spirit,
even while my body takes its needful repose.’[360]
[Illustration:
_Giovanni di Paolo_ _Photo Brogi_
PARADISE
(Instituto delle Belle Arti, Siena)]
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN
BY
HUBERT VAN EYKE
On the 6th of May, 1432, the great altar-piece painted by Hubert and
Jan van Eyke, entitled ‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,’ was erected
as a finished work in the Church of S. Bavon in Ghent.
Each of its twelve panels is extremely interesting but the detail which
is most important in connection with flower symbolism is the crown of
the Madonna. Mary as Queen of Heaven, is seated on the right hand of
God the Father, her head is slightly bowed as she reads from the book
which she holds open.
Her crown is of gold, set with pearls, sapphires and rubies. Above each
large square-cut ruby is placed a lily with two dark-blue columbines
at its base. Above the sapphires and alternate with the lilies, are
roses, each surmounted by three slender stalks of lily of the valley. A
cluster of diaphanous gold stars form a sort of aureole.
The symbolism of jewels is complicated and confused, varying with
different authorities, but that of flowers is almost always unchanged.
In this crown the _lilium candidum_, which takes the place of the
golden fleurs-de-lys that ornament the crowns of earthly queens,
indicates the purity of body and of soul by which the Virgin had found
favour in God’s sight. The roses, three in number, denote the Divine
Love of the Holy Trinity, and since these are placed, though singly, in
a crown, they hold also some measure of heavenly joy.
The seven blooms of the columbine, symbolize the seven gifts of the
Holy Spirit, which, when attributed to the Virgin, are, Faith, Hope,
Charity, Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Strength.
The lily of the valley, found only in northern symbolism, typifies the
meekness and ‘low estate’ of the ‘hand-maid of the Lord.’
The twelve stars suggested by the starry crown of the Apocalypse, are
said by some authorities to represent the twelve Apostles, illustrating
Mary’s title of ‘Regina Apostolorum.’ The ‘great wonder’ had appeared
in Heaven and the lily-like maid was now a queen, ‘the woman clothed
with the sun, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’
[Illustration:
_Hubert van Eyke_
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN
(From copy by Coxie, Alte Pinakothek, Munich)]
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
BY
HUGO VAN DER GOES.
There has been lately placed in the Uffizi Gallery, the large
‘Adoration of the Shepherds,’ by Hugo van der Goes, which was painted
between 1470 and 1475 by order of Tommaso Portinari, agent of the
Medici in Bruges, for the Chapel of the Florentine Hospital of Santa
Maria Nuova.
It is a tryptich. On the side wings are the donor and his family; in
the centre is the ‘Adoration of the Shepherds.’
Upon the ground in the courtyard of a stable, the Holy Child lies in
a pool of light emanating from Himself. His mother kneels beside Him,
and plain little angels with jewelled head-dresses form a circle round
them. To the right is a group of adoring shepherds--to the left Saint
Joseph.
In the foreground of the picture, before the Infant Christ, there lies
a sheaf of corn. There are also two vases. One is of pottery, with
a conventional design of grapes and vine leaves, and is filled with
orange lilies and the purple and the white iris. In the other, which
is of transparent glass, there is columbine and three red carnations;
upon the ground are scattered blue and white violets. Each flower is
painted with the most exquisite precision. Here the flower symbols
all emphasize the spiritual significance of the scene. The scattered
violets symbolize humility, for the King of Heaven lies on the ground
as a little Child. The white ones among them may denote the innocence
of His babyhood. The transparent glass so often seen in Annunciations,
is the symbol of His immaculate conception, the group of carnations,
alike in shape and colour, typifies the divine love of the triune
Godhead, which moved the Son to take a human form for our salvation.
The seven blossoms of the columbine, the flower of the dove, are
symbols of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit with which He was endowed
at birth. The lilies in the vase are His own emblem as the King of
Heaven, since He said: ‘I am the flower of the field, and the lily of
the valleys.’ They are not the _lilium candidum_, the flower of the
Madonna’s purity, but the royal lilies of the field, orange, purple and
white. Even Solomon, in gold, purple and fine linen, ‘was not arrayed
like one of these.’
Lastly there is the vine, pictured upon the vase, and the sheaf of
corn, the eucharistic substances which in the sacrifice of the Mass,
repeat the sacrifice for which He was born into the world as a little
child.
It has been said, and reproachfully, of the Northern artists that they
preferred gold, jewels and rich embroideries to the more ephemeral
loveliness of flowers. This dictum may be just when applied to the
early German schools; of Flemish Art it is not true. In this picture,
for instance, the little angels are richly dressed but not rose-crowned
like their Florentine cousins. They wear instead circlets of precious
stones and pearls, from which spring aigrettes with pendant jewels.
They carry no flowers and no flowers are used to fill vacant spaces in
the picture. Flowers are reserved instead for the highest use of all
and are placed in the forefront of the scene to represent the virtues
of the Holy One.
Hugo van der Goes has painted almost these same flowers of the
Adoration in his Fall.[361] Adam and Eve stand beneath the tree from
which Eve reaches an apple. The lizard-bodied tempter stands behind. In
the centre of the foreground, in front of the figures, is the iris, the
columbine, the violet, a rose-bush not yet in bloom and the strawberry.
There is also a pansy (which is rare as a symbol, except in England
where it was named Herb Trinity,) and its meaning in this picture does
not seem clear.
These flowers, used elsewhere as the emblems and attributes of Jesus
Christ, here are introduced to recall the coming of the ‘second Adam,’
exactly reversing the symbolism which places an apple in the hand of
the Infant Christ.
[Illustration:
_Hugo van der Goes_ _Photo Brogi_
THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
(Uffizi Gallery, Florence)]
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
BY
MURILLO
In the 17th century the Spanish Inquisition appointed certain
_familiares_ whose warrant ran:
‘We give him commission and charge him hence forward that he take
particular care to inspect and visit all paintings of sacred
subjects which may stand in shops or in public places; if he finds
anything to object to in them he is to take the picture before the
Lords of the Inquisition.’
Murillo, painting for the Church in Seville, the most orthodox city of
Spain, may therefore be reckoned correct in his method of presenting
sacred subjects. At the period in which he painted, the particular form
of Madonna picture most often ordered by the Spanish Church, was that
known as the ‘Immaculate Conception.’
The sinless birth of the Virgin was a dogma that had been adopted
enthusiastically by the Spanish, so much so that Philip III and Philip
IV sent special embassies to Rome to obtain more explicit papal
recognition of the doctrine. It did not, however, become an article
of faith till 1854 and, as a subject, it is chiefly confined to the
Spanish School.
The scheme of the picture is invariably taken from the Revelation of
St. John.
‘And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven; a woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of
twelve stars.’
It was usual to add a group of _putti_ about the Virgin’s feet (her
feet, according to an injunction of the Inquisition as to ‘decency’
being carefully covered) and these _putti_ almost always carried
flowers, the rose, lily, olive and palm. Sometimes the iris was added,
and occasionally the iris alone was used.[362] Very often a _putto_
carries a looking-glass,[363] a symbol of the Immaculate Conception
which appears to be of Spanish origin, but which is perhaps a variation
or development of the transparent vase, which in the 15th century art
was a symbol of the virgin birth of Christ. The idea is that the glass,
whatever be the image cast upon it, remains in itself unstained.
In Murillo’s masterpiece, ‘_La Purissima_’ of the Prado, the flowers
indicate Mary’s virtues. The rose, symbol of love and mercy, show
her as the _Mater misericordiæ_; the lily shows her purity--she is
‘_La Purissima_:’ the palm of triumph is hers as the Queen of Heaven
and the olive tells of the healing she brings to mankind; she is the
_Consolatrix Afflictorum_.
And the Church having identified the Virgin with the ‘Wisdom’ of the
24th Chapter of Ecclesiasticus, these symbols are also her direct
emblems, for, says Wisdom:
‘I was exalted like a palm-tree in Engaddi, and as a rose-plant in
Jericho, as a fair olive-tree in a pleasant field.’
And the lily is always her emblem as ‘The lily of the valleys.’
It is noticeable that this figure of the Virgin, realized from the
word picture of the Revelation of Saint John, was one that appealed
strongly to the Spanish. She is ‘clothed with the sun and the moon
under her feet.’ The moon is represented as the crescent moon which was
the sacred device of the followers of Mahomet, and which had surmounted
innumerable mosques throughout the Iberian peninsula for more than
five hundred years. Ferdinand, husband of Isabella, put an end to
the Moorish dominion in 1492, but the impress of the Moor is to this
day strong on the land, and in the 17th century it seemed a fitting
thing that the Virgin’s foot should be upon the hated crescent which
symbolized Moorish rule and the faith of Islam. It was therefore, as
a symbol of the Mohamedan faith [rather than as a symbol of chastity
through its connection with the Goddess Diana, as is sometimes
suggested], that representations of the Virgin with her feet upon a
crescent, became so popular in Spain.
[Illustration:
_Murillo_ _Photo Anderson_
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
(Prado, Madrid)]
THE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGIN
BY
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
In the year 1848, three young English painters, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, founded the Preraphaelite
Brotherhood, the aim of which was to bring back to modern art the
sincerity of those painters who had preceded Raphael.
The original characteristics of the brotherhood’s work were a
simplicity in the types chosen and a workmanship almost Flemish in its
careful and minute finish. But later, and more particularly in the work
of Rossetti, ‘Preraphaelism’ became associated with a certain mysticism
of subject whose deeper meaning was accentuated and elucidated by the
use of symbols and more especially flower symbols.
Rossetti’s earliest exhibited work was ‘The Girlhood of Mary Virgin,’
painted in 1849.
The Virgin with Saint Anne by her side, sits at an embroidery frame and
works upon a strip of red material the lily with two flowers and a bud
which grows in a vase before her. A little rosy winged angel waters the
lily, and, lying crossed upon the ground, is a seven-leaved palm and a
seven-thorned briar, united by a little scroll bearing the words ‘_Tot
dolores, tot gaudia_.’
The second part of the double sonnet written by the artist for this
picture explains to some extent the symbolism.
II
These are the symbols. On that cloth of red
I’ the centre is the Tripoint: perfect each
Except the second of its points, to teach
That Christ is not yet born. The books--whose head
Is golden charity, as Paul hath said--
Those virtues are wherein the soul is rich:
Therefore on them the lily standeth, which
Is innocence, being interpreted.
The seven-thorn’d briar and the palm seven-leaved,
Are her great sorrow and her great reward.
Until the end be full, the Holy One
Abides without. She soon shall have achieved
Her perfect purity: yea, God the Lord
Shall soon vouchsafe His Son to be her Son.
Behind the Virgin is the trellis of the ‘Enclosed Garden.’ Beyond--for
still the ‘Holy One abides without’--is the vine, emblem of the ‘True
Vine,’ the figure of Saint Joseph, who tends it, forecasting that he
would be the guardian of Christ’s infancy. Upon the trellis, up which
wreathes the white convolvulus, used in the 15th century as the symbol
of humility, sits the Holy Dove.
Finally, upon the balustrade is a rose in a transparent vase, the rose
of divine love conjoined with the symbol of transcendant purity.
[Illustration:
_Dante Gabriel Rossetti_ _Photo Mansell_
THE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGIN]
LIST OF AUTHORITIES
Antony, Joseph, _Symbolik der Katholischen Kirchen Gebrauche_
Archæologia
Augustine, St, _Confessions_
Beaumont, de, _Recherches sur l’origine du Blazon et en particulier
la Fleur-de-Lis_
Bernard of Clairvaux, St, _Sermons_
_Biblia Pauperum_, Heidelberg Copy, 1440; German Ed., 1471,
Wolfenbüttel Copy
_Byzantine Guide to Painting_ (Didron’s Translation)
Dante, _Divina Commedia_
Didron, _Christian Iconography_
Durandus, _Rational of the Divine Offices_
Edmonson, _Complete Book of Heraldry_, 1780
Ford, _Spanish Handbook_ (First Edition)
Hirn, Yrjö, _The Sacred Shrine_
Huysman, J. K., _La Cathédrale_
Jacobus de Voragine, _Legenda Aurea_
Jameson, Mrs, _Sacred and Legendary Art_
Jenner, Mrs H., _Christian Symbolism_
Liebman, P. S., _Kleine Handwörterbuch der Christlichen Symbolik_
Martin, Arthur, _Mélanges d’Archéologie_
Mectilda, St, _Spiritual Grace_
Menzel, Wolfgang, _Christliche Symbolik_
Neale, J. M., _Hymni Ecclesiae_
Northcote and Brownlow, _Roma Sotterana_
Schmid, A., _Christliche Symbole aus alter und neuer Zeit_
Smith, _Classical Dictionary_
Strabo, Walafrid, _Hortulus_
_Syrian Codice of 586_, Laurentian Library
Taylor, Jeremy, _The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus_
Tertullian
Twining, Louisa, _Symbols and Emblems_
Vasari, _Lives of the Painters_
Venturi, _Storia dell’ Arte Italiana_
INDEX OF ARTISTS
Angelico da Fiesole, 81, 90, 131, 144, 167, 245, 261
Antinoles, José, 216
Barabino, Niccolo, 122
Bellini, Giov., 232, 241
Bonfigli, 91, 158
Botticelli, 45, 71, 75, 85, 100, 119, 122, 123, 124, 128, 166, 213,
238, 246, 262, 263
Botticini, 77, 188, 213
Breu, Jörg, 107
Bruder Wilhelm, 210
Bürgkmair, Hans, 127, 255, 264
Cano, Alonzo, 128
Carotto, Giov. Franc., 188
Carpaccio, Vittore, 138
Cavallini, 59, 164
Cimabue, 138
Crivelli, 192, 257, 273
Donatello, 158
Duccio di Buoninsegna, 59, 144
Dürer, Albert, 39, 51, 68, 173
Filarete, Ant., 44
Francesca, Piero della, 140
Franciabigio, Francesco, 202
Fries, Hans, 156
Gaddi, Taddeo, 226
Ghirlandaio, Dom., 67, 167, 200
Giambono, 208
Giotto, 59, 157, 166, 200, 224, 226
Giovanni di Paolo, 177, 268, 270
Gozzoli, Benozzo, 98, 214
Grünwald, Mat., 255
Guariento, 180
Holbein, Hans, 256
Holman Hunt, 40, 129
Joos van Cleeve, 250
Leighton, Frederick, 48
Leonardo da Vinci, 12, 39, 166
Liberale da Verona, 222
Lippi, Fra Filippo, 45, 167, 186, 245, 261
Lochnar, Stephen, 210
Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, 114, 142, 177, 181, 242
Lorenzo da San Severino, 258
Lucas van Leyden, 51, 227, 254
Luini, 93, 109, 231
Mabuse, 94, 119, 204, 239
Mantegna, 120, 127, 272
Maratta, Carlo, 39
Master of Flémalle, 63, 69, 165
Master of the Bartholomew Altar, 110, 195
Master of the Carnations, 86
Master of the Sterzing Altar, 144, 189
Memling, 50, 63, 65, 66, 100, 119, 168, 243, 245
Michael-Angelo Buonarroti, 12, 191
Moretto, 119, 158
Murillo, 75, 115, 233
Neri di Bicci, 45, 77, 245, 261
Niccolo d’Apulia, 164
Orcagna, 59, 179
Palmezzano da Forli, 68
Perréal, J., 158, 174
Perugino, 45, 276
Pesello, 67, 169, 192
Pinturicchio, 172
Pisano, 209
Podesti, 267
Raphael Santi da Urbino, 12, 93, 213
Robbia, Della, 274
Romano, Giulio, 214
Rosselli, Cosimo, 108, 158
Rossello di Jacopo Franchi, 188
Rossetti, D. G., 40, 175, 185, 199
Rubens, P. P., 20, 51, 140, 253
Sano di Pietro, 38, 242, 243
Sassetta, 223
Sassoferrato, 130
Schiavone, Giorgio, 274
Schöngaur, 123, 247
Schüchlin, Hans, 110
Seghers, 131
Signorelli Luca, 47, 74, 195, 204, 206, 231
Simone Martini, 59, 91, 117, 178, 179, 231
Sodoma (Bazzi), 109, 123, 213
Spinello Aretino, 142, 167, 181
Squarcione, 203
Stefano da Zevio (da Verona), 100
Taddeo di Bartolo, 167
Tobar, Alfonso da, 82
Trevisani, Francesco, 196
Van der Goes, Hugo, 65, 68, 85, 106, 108, 192, 252
Van der Weyden, Roger, 165
Van Eyck, Hubert, 12, 98, 106
Van Eyck, Jan, 63, 165, 167, 241
Vanni, Andrea, 177
Vasari, G., 248
Veronese, Paul, 228
Watts, F. G., 40
Wolgemut, 156
Zurburan, 76, 77, 12
INDEX OF FLOWERS
Acanthus, Chap. xii.
Almond, 197
Anemone, 60, 93
Apple, 14, 32, 94, 119, 240, Chap. xx.
Balsam, 197, 218
Briars, 33
Buckthorn, 33
Burning Bush, 132, 192
Carnation, Chap. vi., 190, 191
Cedar, 26, 217
Cherries, 243, 245
Clover, _see_ Shamrock