228 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



who are neither saints nor martyrs. There is 

 an engraving from a gold medal in the royal 

 library at Windsor of the Empress Leonora of 

 Portugal. The portrait is half-length, standing, 

 with long hair, beneath the arched imperial 

 crown, and she holds in her hand a hly stem with 

 two flowers and three buds. It is inscribed : 



' Leonora Augusta Frederici Imp. Uxor. ' 



She was the daughter of King Edward of Portugal 

 and wife of Frederick of Austria, also great- 

 grand-daughter of John of Gaunt. It is a 

 pretty figure, childish but dignified. The long 

 hair, Mr Augustus Franks points out,^ is gener- 

 ally looked upon as the mark of a virgin bride, 

 and it is explained by her coronation having 

 taken place before the consummation of the 

 marriage. The lily also, like the flowing hair, 

 proclaims her maidenhood. 



But, as a rule, the lilium candidum is strictly 

 a flower of the church. Paul Veronese^ painted 

 a Juno with a white lily, but the flower has 

 sharply turned-back petals resembling the turn- 

 cap variet}^ and gracefully curving stems. 



' ArchcBologia, vol. 45. " Villa Maser, near Treviso. 



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