‘Leonora Augusta Frederici Imp. Uxor.’
She was the daughter of King Edward of Portugal and wife of Frederick of Austria, also great-grand-daughter of John of Gaunt. It is a pretty figure, childish but dignified. The long hair, Mr Augustus Franks points out,[290] is generally looked upon as the mark of a virgin bride, and it is explained by her coronation having taken place before the consummation of the marriage. The lily also, like the flowing hair, proclaims her maidenhood.
But, as a rule, the lilium candidum is strictly a flower of the church. Paul Veronese[291] painted a Juno with a white lily, but the flower has sharply turned-back petals resembling the turn-cap variety and gracefully curving stems.
It was not till the eighteenth century that Cipriani and Bartolozzi, both members of the English Royal Academy, could design and engrave a heathen goddess, who, with one hand caressing a peacock, held in the other the traditional symbol of virginal innocence.
Lilies are proper to all virgin saints.
‘Liliis Sponsus recubat, rosisque;
Tu, tuo semper bene fida Sponso
Et rosas Martyr simil et dedisti
Lilia Virgo.’
But some carry them as a special distinction.