The symbolism of jewels is complicated and confused, varying with different authorities, but that of flowers is almost always unchanged. In this crown the lilium candidum, which takes the place of the golden fleurs-de-lys that ornament the crowns of earthly queens, indicates the purity of body and of soul by which the Virgin had found favour in God’s sight. The roses, three in number, denote the Divine Love of the Holy Trinity, and since these are placed, though singly, in a crown, they hold also some measure of heavenly joy.
The seven blooms of the columbine, symbolize the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which, when attributed to the Virgin, are, Faith, Hope, Charity, Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Strength.
The lily of the valley, found only in northern symbolism, typifies the meekness and ‘low estate’ of the ‘hand-maid of the Lord.’
The twelve stars suggested by the starry crown of the Apocalypse, are said by some authorities to represent the twelve Apostles, illustrating Mary’s title of ‘Regina Apostolorum.’ The ‘great wonder’ had appeared in Heaven and the lily-like maid was now a queen, ‘the woman clothed with the sun, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’
Hubert van Eyke
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN
(From copy by Coxie, Alte Pinakothek, Munich)
THE ADORATION
OF THE SHEPHERDS
BY
HUGO VAN DER GOES.
There has been lately placed in the Uffizi Gallery, the large ‘Adoration of the Shepherds,’ by Hugo van der Goes, which was painted between 1470 and 1475 by order of Tommaso Portinari, agent of the Medici in Bruges, for the Chapel of the Florentine Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.