THE LILY 43 



sweet and piercing. Their form is simple but 

 noble, and they are above all remarkable for the 

 immaculate and luminous whiteness of their 

 firm petals. 



After the twelfth century the lily is always 

 used as the symbol of purity in its perfection, 

 and is most usually associated with the Virgin 

 Mary and with saints of the monastic orders. 

 More rarely it is used as an attribute of the 

 Persons of the Holy Trinity. In a large picture ' 

 representing the Trinity in Glory, by an unknown 

 NeapoUtan painter of the seventeenth century, 

 God the Father holds a stalk of Hlies in his left 

 hand, above which hovers the mystic Dove. 

 Since Christian iconography gives no attributes 

 to God the Father except the orb and crown of 

 omnipotence, the lily must be taken as the attri- 

 bute of the Holy Ghost ; and in a rare subject. 

 The Adoration of the Holy Ghost,' ascribed 

 by Behrenson to the Amico di Sandro, the two 

 angels with swinging censers and lovely floating 

 draperies, who adore the hovering Dove, carry 

 each a hly. The Dove in conjunction with the 

 lily is also found upon the great central doors of 



' Naples Museum. - Stroganoff Collection, Rome. 



