io8 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



in the foreground just below the Child, who stands 

 on His Mother's knee. 



Beside the vase is a sort of casket, out of 

 which seven little cupid angels take seven 

 scrolls. On the respective scrolls are inscribed: 

 FIDES, SPES, CHARITAS, JUSTICIA, 

 PRUDENCIA, FORTES. The seventh is 

 blank, reserved, perhaps, for TEMPERANCE. 

 A crowned saint, seated beside the Virgin, holds 

 upon her knee a scroll on which is written 

 ' AVE REGINA,' and above the Virgin's head 

 hover two putti with a heavy crown. It is 

 therefore to the Mother, rather than to the 

 Child, that devotion is directed, and the seven 

 Gifts are to be taken as her attribute. 



In 1475 the * Adoration of the Shepherds ' 

 by Hugo van der Goes was brought to Florence 

 by Tommaso Portinari, for the Chapel of the 

 Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. Its technique 

 excited the greatest interest among the artists 

 of Italy, and the vase of columbine in the fore- 

 ground may have first drawn their attention to 

 this symbol. Cosimo Rosselh, perhaps the last 

 of the Florentine symbolists, painted it among 

 the daisies, strawberries and jasmine-shaped 



