226 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



presented his rod, and straightway it budded, 

 and the dove descended from heaven and settled 

 upon it. And it was clear to all men that Mary- 

 was to be his wife.' 



In one of the earliest representations ' which 

 we have of the ' Marriage of the Virgin ' Joseph 

 holds a stalk of lilium candidum with a single 

 flower at its summit, on which is poised the 

 holy dove. Thus Giotto, always thoughtful and 

 original in his symbolism, modified the legendary 

 flowering staff to the flower which should sym- 

 bolize Saint Joseph's wedded life with the Virgin. 



But the great majority of artists have followed 

 the legend more closely. Taddeo Gaddi ^ gives 

 a bunch of leaves at the staff's top, just such 

 leaves as would sprout from a staff of ash. 

 There is only one tiny bud upon the bare stick 

 above which the dove hovers in the ' Marriage ' 

 attributed to Firoenzo di Lorenzo,^ and Gau- 

 denzio Ferrari* paints a scarcely-budded staff. 



Sometimes in the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries the staff of Saint Joseph bears red or 



1 Capella dell' Arena, Padua. 



' Capella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence. 



^ S. Girolamo Spello. * Cathedral, Como. 



