Beneath Byzantine influence the rosy wreaths turned to crowns of jewels, and in the period between Constantine and Justinian crowns were considered strictly necessary for the guests at the heavenly feasts. But when the King of Heaven Himself was present all reverently uncrowned, and it is with their crowns in their hands that the twelve apostles stand, and the four-and-twenty elders in the mosaics of Rome and Ravenna. In the Neapolitan mosaics in the Chapel of Santa Restituta eight figures, apparently of martyrs, hold large crowns resembling a victor’s wreath, and the graceful virgin saints on the wall of S. Apollinare Nuova each carries her wreath.
The tall, grand angels of the mosaics have neither wreaths nor garlands. They have gained no crown because no strife has ever troubled their serenity. They stand tall and straight, haloed, with spear-like wands in their hands.
After the twelfth century, however, the apostles and martyrs no longer carry the crown of victory, but it is the angels who wear wreaths, usually wreaths of roses, which are the symbol of heavenly joy. And, alas! what a lowering in type there was from the grand, dignified beings who guard the throne of Mary, on the wall of S. Apollinare Nuova, to the childish, peeping, rose-crowned little attendants which crowd behind her chair in pictures of the Sienese, Umbrian and early Florentine schools. The archangels still keep some dignity, but the sweet little doll-like creatures, rose-crowned and golden-winged, of Fra Angelico seem an inadequate representation of the hosts of Heaven.
But a magnificent strong-limbed angel of the Byzantine type would have overshadowed the slight, transparent-fleshed Madonna whose physique showed traces of the asceticism which went towards the making of a saint. So the angels, denied grand and vigorous frames, were decked with dainty robes and crowns of roses. Paul Bourget writes:
‘Ce double et contradictoire Idéal, celui d’une extase monastique conquise dans le martyre des sens et celui d’une beauté qui parle au sens, semble avoir co-existé dans le Pérugin et dans les peintres qui l’ont précédé ou accompagné, particulièrement dans Benedetto Bonfigli, dans Eusebio da San Giorgio, dans Giannicola Manni et quelques autres dont la Pinacothèque de Pérouse enferme les œuvres. Ce rêve complexe a son symbole dans les anges de Bonfigli, couronnés de roses, comme les impies dont parle l’Ecriture “Couronnons-nous de roses avant qu’elles ne soient flétries,” comme les convives aussi des banquets paiens “Respirons les roses tant qu’elles ressemblent à tes joues. Embrassons tes joues tant qu’elles ressemblent à tes roses.” Mais ces pauvres anges aux cheveux fleuris tiennent dans leurs mains les instruments de la Passion du Sauveur, et une pitié douloureuse noie de rouge leurs douces prunelles où roulent de grosses larmes.’[82]
But blissful souls as well as angels wear roses. In the Paradise of Simone Martini,[83] Saint Peter with his key has opened the gate of Heaven and two angels standing by crown with roses each soul as it enters.
And more particularly those souls are crowned who in their earthly life could rejoice in their faith even when overwhelmed with troubles. Symbol of holy joy is the crown of roses which Saint Cecilia wears. Her legend, like other legends of the Early Church, is both more poetic and more allegorical than those which originated in later times.
Saint Cecilia lived in virginity with her husband Valerian, who, through love of her, became a Christian and was baptized.
‘And returning home he found Cecilia in her chamber conversing with a glittering angel ... and he held in his hand two crowns of roses and lilies, and he gave one of them to Cecilia and the other to Valerian.
‘And on the morrow, when Tibertius came to salute his sister-in-law Cecilia, he perceived an excellent odour of lilies and roses, and asked her, wondering, whence she had untimely roses in the winter season.’ (That is, whence came her holy joy during the season of persecution.) ‘And Valerian answered that God had sent them crowns of roses and lilies but that he could not see them till his eyes were opened and his body purified’ (by baptism).