no FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



special meanings as symbols. An exception is 

 the * Entombment ' ' of Hans Schiichlin of Ulm. 

 From a rock in the foreground springs a plant 

 of columbine with three drooping flowers. On 

 a smaller plant at the side are four more blossoms, 

 making up the mystic seven. There are only 

 these columbines and a little short grass. On 

 the step of the tomb lies the crown of thorns 

 which has fallen from the head of the dead 

 Saviour as the disciples lower His body to the 

 grave. 



The seven blooms of the columbine appear 

 again in the Thomas-altar ^ by the master of 

 the Bartholomew-altar, who painted during the 

 first twenty years of the sixteenth century. It 

 is a disagreeable picture, the types poor and the 

 action of the doubting Thomas, as he thrusts his 

 hand into the Saviour's wound, distinctly brutal. 

 But all round the feet of the risen Saviour he 

 flowers scattered on the broad stone step. 

 There are again the seven heads of the columbine, 

 snapped off short and showing scarcely any 

 stalk; there are the violets of humility and the 

 daisy, often seen with the violet as the symbol 



' Tiefenbronn Church, * Walh-af-Richartz Museum, Cologne. 



