280. THE MADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATE.
Giovanni Bellini (Venetian: 1426-1516). See 189.
A prophetic sense of the Saviour's sufferings is signified by the symbol of the pomegranate—
Pomegranate, which, if cut deep down the middle,
Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity.
Mrs. Browning: Lady Geraldine's Courtship.
Years pass and change; mother and child remain.
Mother so proudly sad, so sadly wise,
With perfect face and wonderful calm eyes,
Full of a mute expectancy of pain:
Child of whose love the mother seems so fain,
Looking far off, as if in other skies
He saw the hill of crucifixion rise,
And knew the horror, and would not refrain.
Love in Idleness (1883).
This picture, which is signed by the painter, probably dates from 1485-88.