Chapter I: Preface

This little book has been written for the pleasure of those amateurs who are more interested in the idea which inspires a picture than in the picture’s workmanship. Naturally, the more accomplished the artist, the more clearly and attractively is he able to set forth his meaning; but with art criticism this book has nothing to do, and the attributions are, for the most part, simply those of the official catalogues of the respective galleries.

To explain completely even so small a branch of Christian symbolism as that of flowers, an exhaustive knowledge is required of the development of Christian theology, and of the varying force with which different doctrines appealed at different times to the public mind. But still, these notes may be of some interest to those who care to trace in the work sanctioned by the Church and reverenced by the people the history of Western idealism, and who are sometimes puzzled by the conventions employed by the Masters to illustrate the Divine Mysteries.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS 9

II. THE FLOWER SYMBOLISTS 23

III. THE LILY 41

IV. THE IRIS 62

V. THE ROSE 71

VI. THE CARNATION 83

VII. GARLANDS OF ROSES 88

VIII. THE COLUMBINE 104

IX. THE OLIVE 112

X. THORNS 126

XI. THE PALM 134

XII. THE ACANTHUS 146

XIII. THE FLEUR-DE-LYS 148

XIV. THE LILY OF THE ANNUNCIATION 162

XV. THE LILY OF THE ANGEL GABRIEL 177

XVI. THE FLOWERS OF THE DIVINITY 191

XVII. THE FLOWERS OF THE VIRGIN 197

XVIII. THE LILY OF THE SAINTS 219

XIX. THE VINE 235

XX. THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE 240