One plant, the acanthus, which was very much used by pre-Renaissance artists, seems to have dropped later from the flora of symbolism.
Photo Alinari
THE ACANTHUS OF PARADISE
Mosaic of 13th century
(S. Clemente, Rome)
Paradise was embowered, according to Saint Paulino da Nola, in floriferi caeleste nemus paradisi, and curving branches of acanthus indicate Heaven in the mosaics of the Baptistery of Ravenna and in the apse of St John Lateran. The Trees of Jesse and the Trees of Life in early art are also founded on the acanthus with various symbolical details niched in the branches. It surrounds the ‘Coronation’ and fills the space above the heads of the saints in the large central mosaic of S. Maria Maggiore170 and of the fine mosaic in S. Clemente.171 Venturi writes of the latter:
‘From the plant, whence rises the Cross, spring two green boughs which wreath over all the abside, enclosing with their spirals birds, flowers and saints to give the idea of the garden of felicity. In such a way, in the Dugento, at the distance of so many centuries, the verses of St Paulino da Nola are illustrated once more.’
But after the thirteenth century acanthus plants of vast proportions were no longer used to symbolize the gardens of Heaven. Heaven became a natural park-like place with fruit trees and flower-grown grass, except for its inhabitants, differing little from any princely garden. The plant was still used as the motive of much decoration, ecclesiastical and secular, but it was no longer seen in connection with devotional subjects as the representative plant of Heaven.