90 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



of heavenly joy. And, alas! what a lowering 

 in type there was from the grand, dignified 

 beings who guard the throne of Mary, on the 

 wall of S. ApoUinare Nuova, to the childish, 

 peeping, rose-crowned little attendants which 

 crowd behind her chair in pictures of the Sienese, 

 Umbrian and early Florentine schools. The 

 archangels still keep some dignity, but the 

 sweet little doll-like creatures, rose-crowned 

 and golden-winged, of Fra Angelico seem an 

 inadequate representation of the hosts of 

 Heaven. 



But a magnificent strong-limbed angel of 

 the Byzantine type would have overshadowed 

 the slight, transparent-fleshed Madonna whose 

 physique showed traces of the asceticism which 

 went towards the making of a saint. So the 

 angels, denied grand and vigorous frames, were 

 decked with dainty robes and crowns of roses. 

 Paul Bourget writes: 



* Ce double et contradictoire Ideal, c lui 

 d'une extase monastique conquise dans le mar- 

 tyre des sens et celui d'une beaute qui parle au 

 sens, semble avoir co-existe dans le Perugin 



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