98 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



little fertile mounts, and grass thick with flowers, 

 among which lilies and roses predominate. 



The celestial meadow of Hubert van Eyck ' 

 has grouped trees as in a park and bushes covered 

 with roses, and there are roses on bushes and 

 trellises, crowns of roses and roses woven into 

 swinging garlands in that most alluring of all 

 painted paradises set by Benozzo Gozzoli upon 

 the walls of the Palazzo Riccardi." * Roses 

 and pomegranates, their leaves drawn to the 

 last rib and vein, twine themselves in fair and 

 perfect order about delicate trellises; broad 

 stone-pines and tall cypresses overshadow them ; 

 bright birds hover here and there in the serene 

 sky; and groups of angels glide and float through 

 the glades of an entangled forest.' ^ 



It is a paradise after the own heart of a 

 Medici, in which no monotony, no boredom need 

 be apprehended, full of gay and witty folk and 

 the most gorgeous angels that were ever seen. 



The roses of Paradise must not be confused 

 with the rose hedge or treUis so often placed 

 behind the Virgin by the early German schools. 



' Adoration of the Lamb, Ghent Cathedral. 



" Florence. " Ruskin, Modern Painters. 



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