THE FLOWER SYMBOLISTS 35 



which vary in different countries and different 

 schools of painting. Italy being the headquarters 

 of the Church, and also the centre from which 

 pictorial art spread over Europe, most symbols 

 are of Latin origin; but they were modified and 

 often amplified by inherited tradition, chmate 

 and the general trend of the national religious 

 sentiment. So in Italian art, after its re-birth, 

 we find a love of simple lines, of refined types, 

 of flowers, and a striving at first unconscious, 

 then definite, after classical ideals, while the 

 Northern nations, less happy in their traditions, 

 never quite conquered their love of barbaric 

 splendour; a rose wrought in pure gold was to 

 them more truly a symbol of divine love than a 

 fresh rose of the field. 



The most important factor in the modification 

 of flower symbohsm was chmate. As the primary 

 use of a symbol was to instruct the unlearned, 

 the symbol which was to interpret the hidden 

 mystery must be a familiar object. A rare or 

 exotic plant would rather have complicated than 

 simphfied the teaching. So we find the pome- 

 granate and the olive in Italian pictures, but not 

 in those of the Netherlands: the columbine and 



