THE POMEGRANATE 267 



almost every sort upon his slender, long-figured 

 Madonnas, leaves the pomegranate aside. 



In modern work, Podesti, in his vast fresco 

 of the Immaculate Conception,' has placed a 

 large single pomegranate upon a book arranged 

 prominently in the foreground. It is the symbol, 

 apparently, of the fruitfulness of the Virgin. 



The ancient Jews ornamented their temple 

 with the pomegranate, and their high priest's 

 robes were bordered with alternate bells and 

 pomegranates. In the Christian Church, too, 

 they have been admitted as decoration, though 

 not with any very clear and definite symbohcal 

 significance. There is a very handsome seven- 

 teenth-century altar-rail of marble on which 

 rest candlesticks and huge brass pomegranates 

 before the high altar in the ancient church of 

 S. Cecilia in Rome; and a great bronze pome- 

 granate, worn by much caressing, is on the 

 balustrade in the tiny chapel which was once 

 the bathroom of the saint. 



J Vatican. 



