124 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



to guess. The olive tree not growing in the 

 North, the painters would be at a loss to find a 

 branch from which to draw, and the people, 

 unacquainted with the leaf, would scarcely 

 recognize its hidden message of peace. In 

 France it is seen less rarely. On the sculptured 

 portal of the Cathedral of Amiens there is a 

 curious rendering of the parable of the Wise and 

 the Foohsh Virgins. A withered olive tree, with- 

 out fruit or leaves, grows by the side of the 

 foolish maidens, and a healthy olive tree, laden 

 with fruit and ready with abundance of oil, is 

 beside those maidens who were wise. 



But on the whole the olive is an Italian, and 

 more particularly a Sienese, symbol, though 

 Botticelli also loved the silvery leaves. In 

 his magnificent ' Pallas taming the Centaur,' ' 

 painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, to commemorate 

 his diplomatic victory over the King of Naples 

 and the League in 1480, olive encircles the head 

 of the lovely goddess and is wreathed about her 

 dress. The surface meaning of the picture is 

 that, by the arts of peace taught them by the 

 beneficent goddess, men were enabled to over- 



' Private apartments, Pitti Palace. 



