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THE OUEEN OF HEAVEN 



BY 



HUBERT VAN EYKE 



N the 6th of May, 1432, the great altar-piece painted by Hubert 

 and Jan van Eyke, entitled 'The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,' 

 was erected as a finished work in the Church of S. Bavon in Ghent. 



Each of its twelve panels is extremely interesting but the detail 

 which is most important in connection with flower symbolism is the 

 crown of the Madonna. Mary as Queen of Heaven, is seated on the 

 right hand of God the Father, her head is slightly bowed as she reads 

 from the book which she holds open . 



Her crown is of gold, set with pearls, sapphires and rubies. Above 

 each large square-cut ruby is placed a lily with two dark-blue 

 columbines at its base. Above the sapphires and alternate with the 

 lilies, are roses, each surmounted by three slender stalks of lily of the 

 valley. A cluster of diaphanous gold stars form a sort of aureole. 



The symbolism of jewels is complicated and confused, varying with 

 different authorities, but that of flowers is almost always unchanged. 

 In this crown the liliuni candidum, which takes the place of the golden 

 fleurs-de-lys that ornament the crowns of earthly queens, indicates the 

 purity of body and of soul by which the Virgin had found favour in 

 God's sight. The roses, three in number, denote the Divine Love of 

 the Holy Trinity, and since these are placed, though singly, in a crown, 

 they hold also some measure of heavenly joy. 



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