i82 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



nection, and chiefly for the reason that the 

 palm became consecrated to representations of 

 the last scenes of the Virgin's life. The Legenda 

 Aurea, when recounting how the angel Gabriel 

 announced to the Virgin her approaching death, 

 states : ' He (Gabriel) gave her a branch of palm 

 from Paradise, which he commanded should be 

 borne before her bier.' 



The palm was, therefore, a necessar}^ detail 

 in this scene, and it was probably to avoid con- 

 fusion between these two separate appearances 

 of the angel to the Virgin that the palm has 

 been reserved entirely for the last Annunciation. 

 The religious sentiment of the age forbade the 

 portrayal of any sign of decrepitude in the 

 Virgin even at the hour of her death, and 

 except for the substitution of the palm for the 

 lily and the reversal of the usual places of the 

 figures, the Virgin being placed on the left and the 

 angel on the right, it would be difficult to dis- 

 tinguish the scene where the Virgin receives the 

 news of her approaching death, from that in which 

 her approaching motherhood is announced to her. 



It became the general rule, then, for Gabriel, 

 as the angel of the Annunciation of the Saviour's 



