144 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



the Evangelist, appears at her bedside carrying 

 the palm. Northern art was almost entirely 

 uninfluenced by the details given by Jacobus 

 de Voragine of the Virgin's death and burial, 

 and though in Germany ' The Death of the 

 Virgin ' is a very favourite subject, the palm is 

 never introduced. Saint John frequently, how- 

 ever, holds a lighted taper, and some form of 

 the starry palm tradition may have drifted 

 northwards, for the master of the Sterzing Altar ' 

 paints a cluster of star-shaped flowers in the 

 hand of Saint John, who bends over the inani- 

 mate form of the Virgin. 



Her body was carried by divine command 

 to the valley of Jehoshaphat, * and John bare 

 the palm branch in front of it.' 



This scene, too, belongs to Italian art, and 

 usually makes a beautiful processional group. 

 Saint John, with the privilege of a son, walks 

 before the bier. Duccio di Buoninsegna ^ paints 

 him with the closed narrow palm of a martyr. 

 In the charming little long-shaped picture by 

 Fra Angelico ^ the palm has its fan-shaped 



' sterzing, Rathaus. * Opera del Duomo, Siena. 



' Uf&zi, Florence. 



