Shall soon vouchsafe His Son to be her Son.
Behind the Virgin is the trellis of the ‘Enclosed Garden.’ Beyond—for still the ‘Holy One abides without’—is the vine, emblem of the ‘True Vine,’ the figure of Saint Joseph, who tends it, forecasting that he would be the guardian of Christ’s infancy. Upon the trellis, up which wreathes the white convolvulus, used in the 15th century as the symbol of humility, sits the Holy Dove.
Finally, upon the balustrade is a rose in a transparent vase, the rose of divine love conjoined with the symbol of transcendant purity.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Photo Mansell
THE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGIN
LIST OF AUTHORITIES
- Antony, Joseph, Symbolik der Katholischen Kirchen Gebrauche
- Archæologia
- Augustine, St, Confessions
- Beaumont, de, Recherches sur l’origine du Blazon et en particulier la Fleur-de-Lis
- Bernard of Clairvaux, St, Sermons
- Biblia Pauperum, Heidelberg Copy, 1440; German Ed., 1471, Wolfenbüttel Copy
- Byzantine Guide to Painting (Didron’s Translation)
- Dante, Divina Commedia
- Didron, Christian Iconography
- Durandus, Rational of the Divine Offices
- Edmonson, Complete Book of Heraldry, 1780
- Ford, Spanish Handbook (First Edition)
- Hirn, Yrjö, The Sacred Shrine
- Huysman, J. K., La Cathédrale
- Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea
- Jameson, Mrs, Sacred and Legendary Art
- Jenner, Mrs H., Christian Symbolism
- Liebman, P. S., Kleine Handwörterbuch der Christlichen Symbolik
- Martin, Arthur, Mélanges d’Archéologie
- Mectilda, St, Spiritual Grace
- Menzel, Wolfgang, Christliche Symbolik
- Neale, J. M., Hymni Ecclesiae
- Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterana
- Schmid, A., Christliche Symbole aus alter und neuer Zeit
- Smith, Classical Dictionary
- Strabo, Walafrid, Hortulus
- Syrian Codice of 586, Laurentian Library
- Taylor, Jeremy, The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus
- Tertullian
- Twining, Louisa, Symbols and Emblems
- Vasari, Lives of the Painters
- Venturi, Storia dell’ Arte Italiana