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THE LILY OF THE ANNUNCIATION 169 



nature of the Holy Trinity, he has striven to 

 interpret florally the message of the angel, that 

 God incarnate would spring from a lily-like vir- 

 ginity. It may not be without design that the 

 iris in the Annunciation is overshadowed by the 

 lilies, while in the picture where the Holy Child 

 sits upon His Mother's lap, the iris in the vase 

 (in this case marked with the sacred mono- 

 gram) has sprung upwards beyond the white 

 lilies. 



In the Church of S. Spirito in Florence there 

 is an altar-piece of the Annunciation which 

 was at one time attributed to Botticelli and 

 is now usually ascribed to Pesello. The vase, 

 placed midway between the two figures, holds 

 three purple irises. Perhaps the artist saw a 

 symbol of the Holy Trinity in the three royal 

 lilies growing on one stalk (though the Church 

 held a belief in the incarnation of the Trinity 

 in unity to be heresy), in which case the 

 colour, the purple of humility, would be 

 appropriate. 



More difficult to explain is the symbolism 

 of the vase of lilies in the Annunciation upon the 

 cover of a psalter, in fine Enghsh needlework 



