THE CARNATION 85 



therefore more in the spirit of Northern art, 

 which Hked to express definite and closely- 

 reasoned symbolism with distinct bright colours 

 and sharply-realized form. In the South, the 

 artists, more concerned with the depicting of the 

 soul than with the outer shell of things, more 

 poetical and also more vague and less accurate 

 in their symbolism, were better pleased with the 

 more elusive charms of the loosely-petalled rose. 



In an ' Adoration ' by Botticelli ' the Holy 

 Child hes among violets, daisies and wild straw- 

 berries, and the background is filled with freely- 

 growing roses, drawn apparently from memory, 

 not life. The roses signify the divine love 

 which impelled the Saviour of the world to be 

 born as a human Child. In the same subject 

 by Hugo van der Goes " three carefully-painted 

 carnations are placed in a crystal vase, and are 

 symbols of the divine love of the Holy Trinity 

 by which God the Son became incarnate, the 

 crystal vase in Northern art typifying the Im- 

 maculate Conception. 



But in the Sienese and Florentine schools 



' Private apartments, Pitti Palace, Florence. 

 ^ Uffizi, Florence. 



