The floral symbolism of the great masters - The Knowledge Den

36 FLORAL SYMBOLISM
the lily of the valley in German, but not in
Spanish art.
But it was not climate alone that determined
the use or disuse of any particular plant as a
symbol. If the fieur-de-lys, founded upon the
iris form, had not been borne by the House of
Burgundy, which protected the early Flemish
school, it is possible that the iris might not have
appeared in the early Flemish pictures as a
flower of the Virgin, and certainly had there not
been a continual interchange of Flemish mer-
chandise, which included painted panels, for
Spanish gold, the iris would not have taken its
place as the characteristic flower of a Spanish
* Immaculate Conception.'
Also, had there not been ceaseless warfare and
everlasting hatred between Florence and Siena,
it is possible that Siena would have adopted the
lily as an attribute of Mary in an Annunciation
instead of using invariably the olive branch. But
the lily was the badge of Florence and the cities
were desperately jealous of each other, both in
painting and in politics, and this seems to be the
real reason of the conservatism of Sienese art.
On the whole the symbolism of the Nether-