64 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



drawn in silhouette, showing three petals, and 

 very closely resembles the * fleur-de-lys ' of 

 heraldry. The same convention born of the 

 extreme difficulty of giving modelled form in 

 utter whiteness, particularly in a medium un- 

 fitted to express fine gradations of shade, is 

 found in woven work, tooled leather, and em- 

 broidery, and the common likeness of the imper- 

 fectly-rendered lilium candidum and the iris to 

 the sacred lily of the French and English royal 

 standards, is sufficient to account for any in- 

 decision as to which was precisely the Virgin's 

 lily. It is conceivable, too, that the artists of the 

 Netherlands, when they painted a Madonna for 

 their churches, set her in the midst of the iris 

 which grew so thickly round their doors rather 

 than hmit her patronage to the white lily, which 

 was still exotic and confined to some few convent 

 gardens. For the iris made their Lady more 

 entirely their own — and so she would appeal more 

 strongly to the emotions of the simple. 



But in the Netherlands, in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, symbolism was usually very precise, and 

 there does seem to be a slight difference in the 

 use of the two lilies. The lilium candidum is 



