,250' .CLARKE 5 S TRAVELS. 
aod woman sealed at their supper table. The marks of age 
are strongly delineated in the features of these two personages. 
A young female is represented as coming into the house, and 
approaching the table in haste, to communicate intelligence. 
Her left hand, elevated, points toward heaven. A circular 
symbol of sanctity surrounds the heads of all of them; and 
the picture, according to the most ancient style of painting, is 
executed upon a golden back ground. The subject seems evi¬ 
dently the salutation of Elizabeth by the Virgin, in the house 
of Zacharias. # Upon the table appears a flagon, some 
radishes, and other articles of food. Elizabeth is represented 
holding a cup half filled with red wine, and the Virgin’s right 
hand rests upon a loaf of bread.f A chandelier, with lighted 
candles, hangs from the ceiling ; and, what is more remarkable, 
the Fleur de Ias, as an ornament, appears among the decora* 
lions of the apartment. The form of the chalice in the hand 
of Elizabeth, added to the circumstance of the chandelier, 
give to this picture an air of less antiquity than seems to cha¬ 
racterize the second, which we found in the vaulted chamber, 
near the altar; although these afford no document whereby its 
age may be determined. Candelabra, nearly of the same 
form, were in use at a very early period, as we learn from the 
remains of such antiquities in bronze; and the lily,* as a symbol 
other a gold cup, with red liquor in it: the third appears to be speaking, and points 
up to heaven. 
“ The glories, and some other parts of the picture, are gilt, as the whole of the 
back ground certainly was originally. 
41 It is undoubtedly a great curiosity, and very ancient, although it may be ex¬ 
tremely difficult to fix its date with any degree of accuracy. From the style I cannot 
conclude any thing, as I never saw any other picture like it; but there is nothing in 
the architecture represented in it to induce us to suppose it can be later than the end 
of the eleventh century ; and it may be a great deal older. 
f Luke i. 39, 40. 
f Probably intended as an allusion to the elements of the holy sacrament. 
t The vulgar appellation of Flower de Luce is given in England to a species of iris, 
but the flower originally designated by the French term Fleur de Lis , was, as its name 
implies, a lily. It is represented in all ancient paintings of the Virgin, and sometimes 
in the hand of the archangel, in pictures of the annunciation; thereby denoting the 
advent of the Messiah. Its original consecration was of very high antiquity. In 
the Song of Solomon (ch. ii. 1, 2.) it is mentioned with the rose, as an emblem of the 
church: “lam the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley.” This alone is suffi¬ 
cient to explain its appearance upon religious paintings. Its introduction as a type 
In heraldry may be referred to the crusades. It appears in the crown worn by Ed¬ 
ward the Confessor, according to a coin engraved both in Speed and in Camden. But 
there is another circumstance which renders its situation upon pictures of the Virgin 
peculiarly appropriate: the word Nazareth, in Hebrew, signifies a flower: and St. 
oierom, who mentions this circumstance, (tom. I. epist. xvii. ad Marcellam : See 
also Fuller’s Palestine, book II. c. 6. p. 143. Lond. 1650) considers it to be the cause 
of the allssion made to a flower in the prophecies concerning Christ. Marinus Sanu- 
tus hints at this prophetical allusion in the writings of Isaiah. These are^his words: 
“ Haec est ilia amabilis eivitas Nazareth, quae ftorida interpretatur : in quatfos cam pi 
oritur, dum in Virgine Verbum caro efficitur ....Ornatus tamen illo nobili flore, super 
quezp constat spiritual domiai quievisse. ‘ Asemdet? inquit' Xsayas, l ji,osdcrojliQ? 
