THE VINE 239 



the Holy Family with Saint Anne. Mary, from 

 whom the Saviour received His human blood, 

 hands to her Son the grapes which He crushes 

 till the wine drops down into the cup. 



But the cluster of grapes which several of 

 the Flemish artists place in the hand of the 

 Infant Christ seems to be not only the emblem 

 of the holy blood, but also, in some sort, the 

 antithesis of the apple as the fruit of redemption, 

 which in the hand of the second Adam replaces 

 the fruit of the Fall. 



In a picture by Mabuse, inscribed ' Verus 

 Deus et Homo: casta mater et Virgo,' ' the 

 Virgin offers a bunch of grapes to the Infant 

 Christ, who holds a quince, foreshadowing that 

 He should exchange the fruit of Eden, by which 

 all men died, for the fruit of redemption, by 

 which they shall be saved, and this substitution 

 of the fruit of the vine for the apple of Eden 

 became in the North a rather favourite varia- 

 tion of the symboHsm of the fruit of the Tree 

 of Knowledge of Good and Evil. 



» Berlin. 



