172 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



figures worshipping, apparently, a large vase of 

 flowers. 



In two Italian pictures, that of doubtful 

 origin already mentioned which is in S. Spirit o, 

 and the Annunciation of Pinturicchio in the 

 Vatican, where the large vase is placed exactly 

 in the centre of the composition, the flowers 

 within the vase are not white lilies; they are 

 iris, the royal Hly, in one case, and roses, the 

 flower of divine love, in the other. Therefore 

 the flower-fiUed vase was no longer strictly the 

 symbol of the Virgin's purity. A change, hinted 

 at when Memling placed the iris among the 

 hlies, had come about, for the flower which was 

 the attribute of Jesus Christ was now rising from 

 the vase and distinction had been made between 

 the vase and the flower which it contained. 

 Christ is the mystic flower springing from a 

 lowly vessel. He is the flower, Mary the vase. 

 The royal purple lily or the rose of love are, 

 therefore, as appropriate a filling for the vase as 

 was the lily, and there is no incongruity in any 

 attitude of homage towards the vase on the part 

 of the Virgin. But since the compound emblem 

 was the emblem of the Immaculate Conception,. 



