THE LILY 51 



Judgment/ and in the Last Judgment of Lucas 

 van Leyden." The same device was used by 

 Albert Durer ^ and many of the less known 

 German masters ; but Rubens, in his magnificent 

 picture now in Munich, has replaced the lily 

 by a sceptre. 



The lily, used in this connection, is not found 

 in Italian art, for though the Netherlands, 

 Germany and England adopted the symboHsm 

 of Italy, Italy, though admiring greatly the 

 technical excellence of the Flemish, rarely 

 assimilated the Northern conventions for the 

 expression of the intangible. i 



But the lily is usually reserved for virgin 

 saints and martyrs, and more particularly for 

 her whom Chaucer names 



' Floure of Virgins all ' 



— that is, the Virgin Mary. 



The Venerable Bede, writing in the early part 

 of the eighth century, declares ' the great white 

 lily ' to be a fit emblem of the resurrection of the 

 Virgin ; the pure white petals signifying her 



' Marienpfarrkirchen, Danzig. r 



- Town Museum, Leyden. 



^ ' The Smaller Passion,' British Museum. 



