264 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



But possibly the authority followed by the 

 masters of the ' Quattrocento,' or by those 

 churchmen who gave them their commissions, 

 was Gregory the Great, for he says : * The pome- 

 granate is the emblem of congregations because 

 of its many seeds : also emblem of the Christian 

 Church because of the inner unity of countless 

 seeds in one and the same fruit. 



Following this interpretation, the pome- 

 granate, when carried by Dante or any other 

 being of mortal birth, would indicate his faith 

 in the Holy Cathohc Church. 



In Northern art the pomegranate is very 

 rare. The Flemish artists ignore it, and those 

 few German artists who paint it are those who 

 had come under Italian influence. And it does 

 not seem entirely clear whether those German 

 artists who, like Hans Burgkmair,' paint it 

 in the Infant Christ's hand, give to the Southern 

 fruit the Southern significance, or if for them 

 it becomes the fruit of Eden in the hand of the 

 second Adam. 



In scenes representing different events in 

 the life of Christ, trees of pomegranates are 



^ German Museum, Niiremburg. 



