246 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



human baby, born into the world to repair, as 

 the second Adam, the old Adam's fault. That 

 He is the Saviour, rather than the King, is par- 

 ticularly emphasized by Botticelli, who seldom 

 fails, even though it be only by the foreboding 

 in the grey eyes of the angels, to give some hint 

 of the coming tragedy. 



On the other hand it may be possible that 

 the painters of Florence in the fifteenth century 

 had harked back to another source for their 

 symbolism and had taken the imagery of Saint 

 Gregory the Great, who used the pomegranate 

 as the emblem of the Christian Church ' because 

 of the inner unity of countless seeds in one and 

 the same fruit.' But in later Italian art, as 

 in all the Northern countries and in modern 

 Church symboHsm, the fruit, most usually the 

 apple, which is in the hand of the Infant Christ, 

 is the fruit of redemption, as the apple of Adam 

 was the fruit of damnation. 



Following the same analogy, the Virgin is 

 regarded as the second Eve, the second universal 

 mother, who, through her Son, is to repair the 

 fault of the first. 



The symbolists of the thirteenth century 



