‘Grant, O Lord, that, like the hare, I may watch for Thee in Spirit, even while my body takes its needful repose.’[360] [Illustration: _Giovanni di Paolo_ _Photo Brogi_ PARADISE (Instituto delle Belle Arti, Siena)] THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN BY HUBERT VAN EYKE On the 6th of May, 1432, the great altar-piece painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyke, entitled ‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,’ was erected as a finished work in the Church of S. Bavon in Ghent. Each of its twelve panels is extremely interesting but the detail which is most important in connection with flower symbolism is the crown of the Madonna. Mary as Queen of Heaven, is seated on the right hand of God the Father, her head is slightly bowed as she reads from the book which she holds open. Her crown is of gold, set with pearls, sapphires and rubies. Above each large square-cut ruby is placed a lily with two dark-blue columbines at its base. Above the sapphires and alternate with the lilies, are roses, each surmounted by three slender stalks of lily of the valley. A cluster of diaphanous gold stars form a sort of aureole. 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.’ [Illustration: _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. It is a tryptich. On the side wings are the donor and his family; in the centre is the ‘Adoration of the Shepherds.’