14 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



anity the emblems and symbols of the Church 

 were drawn from many sources; those that 

 were introduced at the Renaissance were fruits 

 and flowers. The Christ-Child holds the apple, 

 symbol of the Fall, or a pomegranate showing 

 the seeds, symbol of the Church. The Hly typi- 

 fies the spotless purity of the Virgin. Saint 

 Dorothea is crowned with roses; Saint Joseph 

 holds the flowering rod. There were, of course, 

 other symbols used. Allegorical figures held 

 the sword of justice or the scales of judgment; 

 the mandorla, the halo, the orb of sovereignty 

 and the book of knowledge survived from the 

 Byzantine school; but those symbols which 

 first appeared or came into fashion, as it were, 

 at the Renaissance were fruits and flowers. 



It was not strange that it should be so. 

 The new interest in the literature of ancient 

 Greece and Rome had revived the old classical 

 love of nature, of running brooks and leafy 

 forests, and of all the fresh unspoiled things 

 which shoot up clean and fragrant from the 

 earth. Saint Francis with his * jesters of the 

 Lord ' had gone singing through the vineyards 

 praising God for the light of the sun, for the 



