A rather charming treatment of the Annunciation lily, which originated in Germany, is to strew the lily heads upon the floor. They then have the appearance of having fallen from Heaven in a shower, like those falling roses, symbols of divine love, which were so often painted by the artists of Italy and Spain. ‘The Master of the Sterzinger Altar’[238] introduces seven of these lily blooms and buds, snapped off short, and with only an inch or two of stalk, into his fine Annunciation painted in 1458, and, satisfied with these, he uses lilies neither in a vase nor in the angel’s hand. Other artists of his day liked the fancy well, but wished to keep the mystic vase, so, to avoid doubling the symbol, they turned the fallen flowers to roses, or roses and carnations, symbols of the divine favour which had fallen upon the maid. It was a graceful exposition of the underlying meaning of the scene, symbolically right and delightful in pictorial effect. XVI THE FLOWERS OF THE DIVINITY The only growing thing which is used to represent the Trinity in Unity is the trefoil or shamrock. Saint Patrick is said to have plucked from the ground a leaf of shamrock and by it illustrated to the heathen Irish the mystery of the Triune Godhead. Architectural details, and more especially windows, based upon the trefoil’s form, are common in Gothic churches. In pictorial art it is rather unusual as an emblem, but Michael Angelo, who so rarely used symbolical detail, paints the triple-leaved plant and no other leaf or flower in the foreground of his Holy Family.[239] But though the trefoil is the only direct floral emblem of the Trinity, distinct reference to it is often found in the triple grouping of the flowers which are the attributes of the Saviour. For instance, the three carnations of divine love in the crystal vase before the Infant Christ in Hugo van der Goes’ ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’;[240] the three lilies (one in bud) which the angel holds in Crivelli’s ‘Annunciation’;[241] and the three irises in the Annunciation of Pesello.[242] There is no plant or flower used as the emblem of God the Father. From time to time the Hebrew metaphor of the Burning Bush has been used pictorially to indicate His presence; but as early as the fifth century this image was appropriated to express the purity of the Virgin Mother, enveloped but not consumed by the divine love. In the Catacombs and on many mediæval crucifixes the Person of God the Father is indicated by a hand issuing from the clouds and holding a wreath of laurel, palm or olive. But the wreath in this case is not the attribute of the Divine Father, but the attribute of him above whose head the wreath is held. In the Catacombs it is the martyr’s crown; on the crucifix it is Christ’s crown of victory over sin.