238 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



beautiful design of the Pelican in its Piety among 

 grapes and vine leaves behind the figure of God 

 the Father, King of Heaven, in Hubert van 

 Eyck's magnificent altar, * The Adoration of 

 the Lamb.' ' 



Botticelli, who handled symbols with a depth 

 of sentiment unknown to art before, paints 

 grapes with a different significance. For him 

 grapes, like the Eucharistic wine, are the symbol 

 of the Holy Blood, and in one of the most 

 beautiful and unaffected of all his pictures = 

 an angel, standing beside the Infant Christ, 

 holds grapes and corn ears, symbols of the 

 sacrifice of His death. 



The Northern symbolists, also, took clustering 

 grapes to have the same value as the Eucharistic 

 wine as an emblem of Christ's blood. This is 

 clearly seen in a tapestry of the fourteenth 

 century, formerly in the Spitzer Collection. 

 The Infant Christ, seated between the Virgin 

 and Saint Joseph, presses with His hands the 

 juice of a bunch of purple grapes into a chalice. 



Another Flemish tapestry of the same period, 

 which was also in the same collection, depicts 



' Ghent Cathedral. ' Collection Gardener, Boston. 



