There is in the Catacombs a figure of the Virgin Mary praying between two olive trees. Her name is inscribed above her head. She is standing with raised hands in the early attitude of prayer, and these olive trees apparently symbolize ‘the peace of God which passeth all understanding.’ But after the twelfth century the Church had identified the personality of the Virgin with the figure of Wisdom eulogized in Ecclesiasticus, and the olives which are sometimes found beside her refer to the verse which compares her to
‘A fair olive tree in a pleasant field.’[128]
Botticelli painted a beautiful ‘Madonna of the Olives’ for the Church of S. Spirito. Vasari writes of it: ‘In S. Spirito in Florence he has painted a picture for the Chapel of the Bardi which is carefully executed and well finished, where there are some olives and palms painted with great love.’[129] In another picture by Botticelli[130] angels hold above the Virgin’s head a lightly-framed crown of gold which is decorated with fresh sprays of lily, palm and olive.
The most popular of modern Italian representations of the Virgin and Child is very justly that painted by Niccolò Barabino[131] and entitled ‘Quasi Oliva Speciosa in Campis.’ Large branches of olive, painted also ‘with great love,’ are placed about the feet of the sweet-faced Mother, who peeps through her heavy white veil, and they almost hide the fruit of temptation which lies on the ground beneath.
Martin Schöngauer
GABRIEL CROWNED WITH OLIVE BRINGS THE MESSAGE OF RECONCILIATION
(Print Room, Alte Pinakothek, Munich)
One of the putti which fly round the feet of the Madonna in a Spanish ‘Immaculate Conception’ usually carries a branch of olive, and that, too, bears the same meaning. As an olive tree in a pleasant field she brings peace and consolation to mankind. She is the ‘Mater Consolatrix.’
Sodoma painted a stately figure of Saint Victor,[132] with sword and palm, and the little rose-crowned child-angel who supports his shield holds above it a branch of olive, symbol of the peace which to a Christian warrior should be the end of victory.