FRUIT IN GARLANDS 275 



to the Delia Robbia medium than were the 

 delicate petals of flowers. 



The Florentines, too, often placed their 

 Madonnas in elaborate wooden frames of carved 

 and gilded fruit — remembering perhaps the 

 epithet of Saint Bernard, who styled the Virgin 

 Mary * the sublime fruit of the earth,' " finding 

 in her the fulfilment of the prophecy: 



* In that day shall the branch of the Lord 

 be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the 

 earth shall be excellent and comely.' =" 



But many of these garlands of fruit, or of 

 mixed fruit and flowers, are entirely decorative 

 with no hidden meaning. They were a very 

 usual festal decoration in the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries, and when swung above the 

 head of Memhng's ' Enthroned Madonna,' ^ 

 they are no more a symbol than is the carpet 

 beneath her feet, for an almost identical wreath, 

 held in place by the same small putti, is above 

 the throne in Gerard David's ' Judgment of 

 Cambyses,' * while one which is very similar 



1 Sermon on the Assumption of the Virgin. 

 ' Isaiah iv. 2. ' Imperial GaUery, Vienna. 



'• Town Museum, Bruges, 

 s * 



