FRUIT OF TREE OF KNOWLEDGE 255 



of His death; the symbohsm is identical with 

 that of the embroidered vine-leaves and wheat- 

 ears of so many modern altar frontals/ 



Very often, as upon the fagade of Orvieto 

 Cathedral, the fig-tree is taken as the Tree of 

 Temptation, for, it might be argued, our first 

 parents would take to make themselves garments 

 the leaves of the tree nearest to their hand, the 

 leaves of that same tree of whose fruit they had 

 just eaten. * It is possible that the erotic sig- 

 nificance which the fig had among the ancients 

 was also considered in this connection,' ^ and it 

 is probably because of its classical associations 

 that the fig was never placed in the hand of the 

 Infant Saviour. 



Except as the forbidden fruit the fig is not 

 found in Italian or Flemish ecclesiastical art, 

 but in Germany there appears to have been no 

 prejudice against it. It is painted frequently 

 in the Madonna pictures. A small fig-tree over- 

 shadows the cot of the Infant Christ in a picture 

 by Matthias Griinewald;^ Hans Burgkmair * 



' The ' Chigi ' Madonna, Collection Gardener, Boston. 



' W. Menzel, Christliche Syjnbolik, * Museum. Colmar. 



* German Museum, Niiremburg. 



