THE FLOWER SYMBOLISTS 39 



of the heavenly spaces. However, as a rule, 

 artists were conservative and glad to use the 

 recognized symbols as a means of emphasizing 

 and elucidating the sacred subject which they 

 depicted. 



But even before the end of the fifteenth 

 century flowers began to be used for their own 

 sake and not for their hidden meaning. Leon- 

 ardo da Vinci and Albert Diirer painted just what 

 flower or weed they chose, simply for its form or 

 colour. In the sixteenth century flowers were 

 often used merely as decoration, and later, with 

 the exception of the rose, the lily, the olive 

 branch and the palm, they lost all meaning. 

 Carlo Maratta in the seventeenth century painted 

 a figure of the Virgin' encircled by a heavy 

 wreath of every sort of flower — daffodils, 

 gentians, anemones, tulips, edelweiss, roses and 

 lilies, all mixed together. 



In England, about the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century, there was a revival of interest 

 in mystical and symbolical art. The Pre- 

 raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848, 

 whose object was to bring back to modern art 



^ Corsini Gallery, Florence. 



