THE FLOWERS OF THE VIRGIN 199 



or blue, her own colours. An exception, which 

 is unique, is the golden sunflower springing from 

 her halo on a twelfth-century window in the 

 Church of St Remi at Reims, and even that is 

 not exclusively hers, since Saint John, on the 

 other side, bears the same flower. White and 

 blue are the two colours which are held most 

 sacred in the Christian Church. White, symbol 

 of the Supreme Being and of the Eternal Truth, 

 is used in the ornaments for the feast of Our 

 Lord and of the Virgin, for it announces loving- 

 kindness, virginity and charity.' Blue is the 

 symbol of chastity, innocence and candour. 

 Only one yellow flower is used symbolically, 

 and that only in scenes from the Passion, by 

 artists of the early Flemish and German schools. 

 It is the dandelion, and its significance is, ap- 

 parently, bitterness of grief. 



The white lily, which symbolizes purity, is 

 found chiefly in pictures of the Annunciation, 

 but it has been introduced in many other scenes 

 from the life of the Virgin. In the first exhibited 

 painting by Rossetti, entitled 'The Girlhood 

 of Mary Virgin,' " the Virgin, in grey robes, is 



1 Huysman, La Cathedrale. * Collection of Lady Jekyll. 



