I shall begin with those symbols which are borrowed from the Litanies of the Virgin, and from certain texts of the Canticles, in all ages of the Church applied to her; symbols which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, frequently accompany those representations which set forth her Glorification or Predestination; and, in the seventeenth, are introduced into the “Immaculate Conception.”

1.  The Sun and the Moon.—­“Electa ut Sol, pulchra ut Luna,” is one of the texts of the Canticles applied to Mary; and also in a passage of the Revelation, “A woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Hence the radiance of the sun above her head, and the crescent moon beneath her feet.  From inevitable association the crescent moon suggests the idea of her perpetual chastity; but in this sense it would be a pagan rather than a Christian attribute.

2.  The STAR.—­This attribute, often embroidered in front of the veil of the Virgin or on the right shoulder of her blue mantle, has become almost as a badge from which several well-known pictures derive their title, “La Madonna della Stella.”  It is in the first place an attribute alluding to the most beautiful and expressive of her many titles:—­“Stella Maris” Star of the Sea,[1] which is one interpretation of her Jewish name, Miriam:  but she is also “Stella Jacobi,” the Star of Jacob; “Stella Matutina,” the Morning Star; “Stella non Erratica,” the Fixed Star.  When, instead of the single star on her veil or mantle, she has the crown of twelve stars, the allusion is to the text of the Apocalypse already quoted, and the number of stars is in allusion to the number of the Apostles.[2]

[Footnote 1: 
  “Ave Maris Stella
  Dei Mater alma!” &c.]

[Footnote 2:  “In capite inquit ejus corona stellarum duodecim; quidni coronent sidera quam sol vestit?”—­St. Bernard.]

3.  The LILY.—­“I am the rose of Sharon, and lily of the valleys.” (Cant. ii. 1, 2.) As the general emblem of purity, the lily is introduced into the Annunciation, where it ought to be without stamens:  and in the enthroned Madonnas it is frequently placed in the hands of attendant angels, more particularly in the Florentine Madonnas; the lily, as the emblem of their patroness, being chosen by the citizens as the device of the city.  For the same reason it became that of the French monarchy.  Thorns are sometimes interlaced with the lily, to express the “Lilium inter Spinas.” (Cant. ii. 2.)

4.  The ROSE.—­She is the rose of Sharon, as well as the lily of the valley; and as an emblem of love and beauty, the rose is especially dedicated to her.  The plantation or garden of roses[1] is often introduced; sometimes it forms the background of the picture.  There is a most beautiful example in a Madonna by Cesare di Sesto (Milan, Brera); and another, “the Madonna of the Rose Bush,” by Martin Schoen.  (Cathedral, Colmar.)