THE OLIVE 119 



In one of the most naive and fascinating of 

 all Botticelli's pictures ' the angels crowned 

 with olive hold up branches of it against the 

 golden sky. Other angels, half distraught with 

 joy, run with waving olive-sprays to greet the 

 astonished shepherds. 



The same subject is much more soberly 

 treated by Sano di Pietro.^ One angel, flying 

 through the twihght, brings a twig of olive 

 to the shepherd who is sleeping on the 

 hillside. 



There are many symboHcal fruits placed in 

 the hand of the Infant Christ. BotticeUi paints 

 a pomegranate, Mabuse a quince, Memhng an 

 apple, II Moretto a pear, and each represents 

 the individual artist's conviction as to what 

 really was the unnamed fruit of the Tree of the 

 Knowledge of Good and Evil which grew in 

 the midst of Eden. The placing of the olive, 

 symbol of reconcihation, where it might be 

 confused with the fatal fruit which made that 

 reconcihation so imperative was carefully 

 avoided, and we rarely find the olive branch in 



1 'The Nativity,' National Gallery. 

 * ' The Nativity,' Belle Arti, Siena. 



