76 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



the traditions of art in Spain were distinctly 

 gloomy and they seized where they could an 

 excuse for colour. Even Zurburan succumbed 

 to the roses.' 



The roses which strew the floor of Heaven 

 in a famous diptych ^ by an unknown English 

 painter are also symbols of divine love. The 

 panels show Richard II, who is presented to 

 the Virgin by Saint John the Baptist, Saint 

 Edmund and Saint Edward the Confessor. The 

 roses round the Virgin's feet are pink and yellow, 

 and heavier, handsomer flowers than those 

 which are found in Italian pictures of the same 

 period. For the rest, this Heaven is especially 

 remarkable for the pohteness of the blue- winged, 

 blue-robed angels, who each, in compliment to 

 their royal visitor, wear his badge — a white hart 

 couchant, collared and chained or — upon the 

 shoulder. 



Red roses, said Saint Bernard, were symbolical 

 of the Passion of our Lord, but neither in Church 

 observances nor in art have they been generally 

 adopted with that meaning. There is, how- 

 ever, a picture of the Christ-Child in Cadiz. He 



' Cadiz. ' Wilton House. 



