210 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



from which rise patriarchs and prophets. The 

 original fresco has disappeared. 



Very rarely the Virgin holds a violet. The 

 flower is used in Christian art almost exclusively 

 to indicate the humility of the Son of God in 

 taking upon Himself our human form, and in 

 the beautiful altar-piece by Stephen Lochnar ' 

 the Saviour stretches up His tiny hand to grasp 

 the violet held by Mary, so making it His in- 

 dividual attribute. The panel is rich in colour- 

 ing, but Mary is of the simple, placid type of the 

 early German school. She is gravely, deeply 

 happy in her motherhood, and not saddened, 

 as in Italy, by painful forebodings. The Child 

 reaches up His hand with a pretty gesture, ac- 

 cepting from her, who had given Him His tender 

 little body, also the violet, symbol of His humility. 



In a picture by Bruder Wilhelm ^ the Virgin 

 holds a sweet-pea, bearing both the flower and 

 ripened pods. The symbolism of the pea is 

 obscure and is not to be traced in Christian 

 iconography, though there is the legend of the 

 erhilia, a species of pea which, springing first 

 from the footsteps of Saint Columban, still 



' Cologne. ' Cologne. 



