232 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



developed into the great Dominican order. 

 The great aim of his Hfe was to guard the purity 

 of the Cathohc faith, and to this end he hunted 

 forth the Albigenses with his hounds of the Lord 

 — the Domini canes. He is rewarded with the 

 Uly which, in his picture by BeUini,' has a singu- 

 larly rigid stem. 



During the thirteenth, fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries sainted monks were com- 

 paratively rarely painted, preference being 

 given to the more picturesque figures of the early 

 martyrs who suffered under Roman persecutions. 

 But the earliest to appear, and the most fre- 

 quently seen, is Saint Dominic. Duccio di 

 Buoninsegna puts him beside the Madonna; 

 Orcagna painted him among the happy souls 

 in the Paradise of Santa Maria Novella. And 

 the reason why he, rather than the other great 

 founders, should appear in heavenly groups is 

 not the fine rehef of his black habit among the 

 gay gowns of the angels, but because his order 

 spent their gold on painted decorations at a 

 time when the Franciscans, vowed to poverty, 

 and the Benedictines, devoted to the making 



' National Gallery, London. 



J 



