Flowers and Towers
Flowers and Towers:
Politics of Identity in the Art
of the American “New Woman”
By
Nira Tessler
Flowers and Towers:
Politics of Identity in the Art of the American “New Woman”
By Nira Tessler
This book first published 2015
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2015 by Nira Tessler
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-8270-4
ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8270-5
To my husband Arie, my sons Ofir, Ran and Matan;
my daughters-in-law Livnat, Muriel and Sivan;
and my grandchildren
Lior, Saar, Itamar, Rafaelle, Ben and Alex
(Who, hopefully, will read it one day).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Colour Plates ................................................................................... ix
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................... xi
Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Part I: An Enclosed Garden
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 8
The Flower Motif and Feminine Representation in the History of Art
A. The pagan symbolism of flowers: ancient myths
B. From a “lily among the thorns” to Mary’s white lily: Judaism
and early Christianity
C. “An enclosed garden”: metaphorical expressions of Mary
as a central figure in Christianity
D. Evolution of the flower from Christian iconography to secular art
E. Camellias in the theater: Women and flowers in modern literature
and art
Part II: New Flowers
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 40
The Art of Modernist Women in the United States
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 45
The Flower in New Woman Modernist Art in New York
1. Susan Glaspell (1876–1948)
2. Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944)
3. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986)
4. Agnes Pelton (1881–1961)
Chapter Four ............................................................................................ 129
The Flower in New Woman Modernist Art in California
1. Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976)
2. Margrethe Mather (1885–1952)
viii
Table of Contents
Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 156
The Flower in New Woman Modernist Art in Mexico
1. Tina Modotti (1896–1942)
2. Frida Kahlo (1907–54)
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 201
The Flower Motif in the New Wave of Feminist Art
List of Artworks ...................................................................................... 218
Part I: An Enclosed Garden
Part II: New Flowers
Bibliography ............................................................................................ 223
Thought, philosophy, psychology and science
Iconography, theology, mythology and symbolism
The Flower
The “New Woman”: Sociology, feminism and gender
Women's Art / Women in Art
Art in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque
Modern Art
History, culture and American art
Index ........................................................................................................ 249
LIST OF COLOUR PLATES
Plate 1. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Beloved (The Bride), 1865–66, Oil
on canvas, 82.5 x 76.2 cm. (32.5 x 30 in.), Tate Britain, London.
(Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit
KCMG through the Art Fund 1916.
Plate 2. Florine Stettheimer, Family Portrait No .1, 1915, Oil on canvas,
101.6 x 152.4 cm. (40 x 60 in.), Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library,
Columbia University, New York.
Plate 3. Florine Stettheimer, Family Portrait No. 2, 1933, Oil on canvas,
117.4 x 164 cm. (46 1/4 x 64 5/8 in.), Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer,
©Estate of Florine Stettheimer, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
New York. Digital image ©(2015) The Museum of Modern Art/Scala,
Florence.
Plate 4. Florine Stettheimer, Christmas, ca.1930–40, Oil on canvas, 152 x
101 cm. (60 1/16 x 40 in.), Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, Yale
University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
Plate 5. Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Iris III, 1926, Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 75.9
cm. (36 x 29 7/8 in.) Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1969. Photo: Malcolm
Varon. ©2015 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/ARS, New York.
Image source: Art Resource, New York.
Plate 6. Georgia O'Keeffe, The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y., 1926, Oil on
canvas, 123.2 x 76.8 cm. (48 1/2 x 30 1/4 in.), Gift of Leigh B. Block, The
Art Institute of Chicago. ©2015 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York. Image source: Art Resource, New York.
Plate 7. Agnes Pelton, Incarnation, 1929, Oil on canvas, 66 x 55.9 cm.
(26 x 22 in.), ©LeighAnne Stainer. Collection of LeighAnne Stainer,
Fremont, California.
Plate 8. Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico
and the United States, 1932, Oil on metal, 31 x 35 cm. (12.2 x 13.8 in.),
x
List of Colour Plates
Collection of Maria Rodriquez de Reyero, New York. ©Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.
Plate 9. Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974–79, mixed media, 91 x
1460 x 1280 cm. (36 x 576 x 576 in.). Photo: courtesy of Judy Chicago.
Elizabeth Sackler Center of Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art.
©2015 Judy Chicago/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The book is based on my doctoral dissertation, The Iconography of the
Flower: American “New Woman” Art in the 1920s and '30s, which was
completed in 2005 at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts of
Tel-Aviv University, under the guidance, support and encouragement of
mentors, colleagues and beloved family members, whom I wish to
acknowledge here. In effect, this book is a translation and extension of an
abridged version of the dissertation, which was published in Hebrew under
the title: Flowers Out of Context: The Role of Flower Image from the
'Song of Songs' to Modernist Art of Women in America (Tel-Aviv: Resling
Publishing, 2012). In its English language edition—Flowers and Towers:
Politics of Identity in the Art of the American ‘New Woman’—I chose to
focus attention on the image of the skyscraper (tower) beside the image of
the flower, in the work of the artists in my original studies. This image is
perceived, both in the general public consciousness and in research, as a
modern and technological, “masculine” symbol, in contrast to the flower,
which is perceived as a “feminine” symbol in the theological or secular
tradition.
I would like to thank Prof. Nurith Kenaan-Kedar, my PhD supervisor,
for opening my eyes, urging me to pursue fascinating paths of study and
research, and encouraging boldness and creativity, and who happily
continues to support me to this day.
Special thanks to Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi, who, during my Master's
Degree studies at the Interdisciplinary program, Faculty of Arts of TelAviv University, revealed to me the magic of American drama and avantgarde, and sparked my particular interest in Susan Glaspell’s
groundbreaking plays.
To my colleagues, Dr. Ruth Markus and Dr. Dalia Bachar, who read
my manuscript, and offered recommendations and support.
To Jonathan Orr-Stav, who translated the manuscript from Hebrew to
English.
To Ayal Zain for doing the graphic design for the front book cover.
To all the people at Cambridge Scholars Publishing, who made my
book possible.
xii
Acknowledgements
Last but not least: to my dear husband Arie Tessler, who offered
encouragement and support for my research in Israel and has accompanied
me on my many travels throughout the past decade; and to my dear sons,
daughters-in-law, and grandchildren who illuminated my way and
continually reinvigorated me.
I cannot forget my dear late mother, Miriam Segal, who had the soul of
an artist, but passed away before I began my research. Nor my late father,
Yaacov Segal, who counseled me throughout my life, and in my research,
to follow the road less traveled, but who also did not get to see this book,
and whose special twinkle in his intelligent blue eyes I can no longer see.
Tel-Aviv, September 2015
INTRODUCTION
“The greatest flower artists have been those who have found beauty in
truth; who have understood plants scientifically, but who have yet seen and
described them with the eye and the hand of an artist.”1
The expansion of feminist research in recent decades has resulted in
the rediscovery of American women artists who took an active part in the
artistic endeavor in early decades of the twentieth century, and who have
mostly been forgotten and deliberately omitted from the history of art. The
depth of the works of these artists, and the role that they played in the fight
for women’s emancipation, have been revealed through these new studies.
The focus of discussion in this book is on the following artists: the
playwright Susan Glaspell; the painters Georgia O'Keeffe, Florine
Stettheimer, Agnes Pelton and Frida Kahlo; and photographers Imogen
Cunningham, Margrethe Mather, and Tina Modotti. Clearly, the fact that
these are all North or Central American artists working at the same time is
not sufficient reason per se to discuss their work together. I argue that
through the new visual expression that they gave the flower motif in their
work, with the unique thematic encoded therein, they brought about a
profound change in the place of women in art. Moreover, they all, in one
way or another, subverted the conventions of discourse about women in
general and their traditional status, in particular.
These artists, who worked in the early twentieth century in the leading
artistic hubs of America, contributed to the formulation of Modernist art in
that continent. The nature of their work, their points of intersection and
interplay, makes it possible to treat them as a group that portrayed the
“New Woman.”2 These artists therefore played an important part in the
sustained effort to change the American social discourse and public
consciousness from the mid-nineteenth century, in the struggle for
women's equality in various aspects, and in the fight for women’s right to
vote;3 it is no accident that the flower served as a key image in their work.
By choosing the flower, in its particular appearance and characterization in
their works, each of them put forward a unique, feminine visual text in
relation to the traditional artistic arena and the spirit of American society
at the time. Their work sheds a new and less familiar light on the first
wave of the women's movement.
2
Introduction
In her groundbreaking essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women
Artists? Linda Nochlin examines the troubling question of the absence of
great women artists in the central canon of world art. In it, she refers also
to the genre of flower paintings, which was generally thought of as
amateurish and as “women’s art.” She also cites leading theories in
cultural research, which proclaimed on seemingly scientific grounds, that
“human beings with a womb instead of a penis lack the ability to create
something of value.” One must not forget, she points out, that in the past
women did not have the same opportunities as men: prior to the twentieth
century, most were not accepted into art studies in higher education
institutions, and even when they were, they were excluded from drawing
lessons of human nudes, thereby deprived of knowledge in human
anatomy.4
The traditional common stereotypical notion that women were
“painters of flowers,” and therefore not worthy of consideration alongside
“serious painters,” has been discussed by many researchers, including
Norbert Schneider. To challenge it, he cites the flower paintings of Rachel
Ruysch of the late seventeenth century, which at the time were considered
as no less worthy as those of her predecessor Jan Brueghel the Elder.5 As
scholars point out, the reason why Brueghel is known to this day - while
Ruysch is almost completely forgotten - is because of the age-old
discrimination of women, and the fact that the art world, like most areas of
life, is controlled by men who determine its values and historically made it
into a somewhat exclusive, men-only club.
Similarly, the place of women artists in the Modernist groups,
operating in America in the early decades of the twentieth century, was
always defined in relation to the dominant men in those groups: in the case
of the avant-garde art scene of New York, to which Georgia O’Keeffe,
Florine Stettheimer and Agnes Pelton belonged, it was photographer
Alfred Stieglitz, who was also the intellectual mainstay of the group; in the
Californian Modernist world where photographers Margrethe Mather,
Imogen Cunningham and Tina Modotti operated, it was photographer
Edward Weston; while in Mexico in those years the dominant figure in the
art scene was the well-known artist Diego Rivera, who was also the
husband of Frida Kahlo.
The life stories of these women artists demonstrate that, despite the
difficulties that they encountered, they all won recognition and inner
independence—albeit often at a heavy personal price. In particular, most
of them gave up on children and on family in the traditional sense. Despite
their professional acclaim, many critics judged them from a gender point
of view and by male standards that had become entrenched in art history.
Flowers and Towers
3
The images in their works were also judged in similar fashion—
particularly those depicting flowers in new and unfamiliar ways in
paintings or photographs.
The significance of the flower image with regard to femininity and
sexuality has an extensive history in the history of art, from the ancient
cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome to the present day, including Jewish
and Christian aesthetics. Christian iconography had a profound impact on
the presentation of the female figure in Western society. As early as the
biblical Song of Songs—thought by many to be an erotic poem—the
flower has clear sexual overtones: gan na’ul (“a locked garden”)6 and
kashoshanah bein hahohim (“a lily among the thorns”)7 are two of the
floral metaphors used in allusion to the virginity and private parts of the
coveted bride. The influential Christian theologians and founding fathers
of the Church adopted these literary ideas - especially in the twelfth
century - as part of their construction of the iconography of Mary as the
Virgin Mother: the locked garden, (in Latin, hortus conclusus—literally,
“enclosed garden”), and a protective hedgerow of roses, symbolized her
virginity; the Annunciation and the Immaculate Conception, that
distinguished her from other women, were represented by the white lily;
and the thornless “mystical rose” (Rosa Mystica) defined her as a
desirable, but unattainable, woman.
In stark contrast to the Christian use of the flower as a symbol of
feminine modesty, quiet demeanor, humility and virginity, some of the
Modernist women artists, discussed in this book, purposely showed the
flower in close-up, to reveal its “organs” from unusual and daring angles.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, many research studies
argued that the plant kingdom had invented sexuality and sex long before
the simplest animal forms had appeared. The botanist Alec Bristow
discussed this in his book, The Sex Life of Plants, which was published in
1978 to great acclaim. In it, he details the historical, metaphorical, and
scientific aspects of the sexuality of plants, and the form and function of
the flower as the plant’s sexual organ.8 Bristow based his research on the
work of Charles Darwin, who revolutionized our view of the natural
kingdom in his book The Origin of Species in 1859.9 His observations
were based largely on the study of plants, including bisexual flowers, and
on the ways in which they satisfy their sexual drives. Bristow thought
Darwin’s work had considerable influence on the research of the sexuality
of plants—a field that reached its pinnacle in the years 1898–1905 in
studies that brought together knowledge that had accumulated in this field
over 300 years, and helped to decipher the function of the flower in the
plant’s reproductive system.
4
Introduction
Once the flower was recognized as the plant’s sexual organ—with
various stages of development, from bud to bloom to wilting—it was only
natural for it to be perceived as analogous to a woman’s female organs and
body, and as a metaphor for the various periods in her life. Similar
analogies can be found in literature and poetry over the generations,
including Shakespeare’s sonnets, the poetry of William Blake and Charles
Baudelaire, etc.
The significance of this “new” type of flower in the work of New
Woman artists was examined in the light of psychoanalytical and
deconstructionist theory—which presented sexuality as an integral part of
human primal urges and desires, with all that that entails in terms of the
differences between the sexes.10 Freud’s view of the flower in his
interpretations of the dreams of his female patients eventually found its
way into the work of many theoreticians in the twentieth century, and
greatly influenced their tendency to associate flowers with the idea of
virginity, or temptation. In his analyses of dreams involving flowers,
Freud drew not only on botany, but on written texts on the subject—as in
the case of camellias, to which he attributed the same sexual significance
that they were accorded in the figure of Marguerite Gautier, the heroine of
Dumas’s book The Lady with the Camellias, that behind the stereotype of
her social status, was beautiful in body and mind.11 Associations with texts
of this sort are very common in Freud’s work, and often served him when
deciphering “dream thinking.” The images of flowers in the works of the
women artists in this book are examined through a Freudian and
psychoanalytical lens in general, and yet the influence of the traditional
Christian iconography still lingers.12
In his theory of Deconstruction, Jacques Derrida, unlike Freud,
examined various symbolic expressions in the textual realm, particularly
concerning the lack of any fixed hermeneutics in texts, in the peripatetic
behavior of signifiers and the text’s tendency to collapse in on itself.13 The
method that Derrida proposes supports the possibility of reading the
appearance of the flower theme, in the works of New Woman artists, as
either daring and erotic, or closed and virginal. Like Freud’s analytical
approach toward flower dreams, in Derrida’s discourse, too, flowers are
linked to unconscious action.14
A similar metaphorical mechanism, which depends on further
exploring the arbitrariness of the Saussurean linguistic notion of the
absence of an essential link between signifier and signified, also serves me
well in this book.15 This mechanism will allow me to project the
iconographic meanings of the flower on its daring guises in the “New
Woman” art of the twentieth century.
Flowers and Towers
5
In early feminist thinking, Freud’s theories—like those of his
followers—were the subject of much debate about female sexuality and
the distinctive expression it should have in public discourse. Although the
feminist doctrines did not reach their final formulation until the 1970s, the
basic ideas - constantly in the minds of feminist-oriented art researchers –
were that constant reference to the notion of gender16 was essential to the
creation, content and evaluation of art. It is in that spirit that I approach the
meaning of the images of the flower and the tower, in the works of leading
American artists in the early decades of the twentieth century, as symbolic
means to explore their desires, dreams and the new world these images
represent.
Notes
1
Andrew Moor and Christopher Garibaldi (eds.), Flower Power: The Meaning of
Flowers in Art, New York: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2003, p. 55, as quoted in
Wilfrid Blunt, The Art of Botanical Illustration, London, 1950.
2
Caroll Smith-Rosenberg, “Types of discourse on sexuality and subjectivity: the
New Woman,” Zmanim—A History Quarterly, 46–47 (1993): pp 120–133. The
term “New Woman,” as Smith Rosenberg defines it, refers to women in the
second half of the nineteenth century, who went out to work and began to earn
their own livelihood. Although the conventional term in English is “New
Woman,” in the book she uses the term “New Women” to underline that several
women were involved, each of whom today would be considered a “New
Woman.” See also Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “Bourgeois Discourse and the
Progressive Era,” Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America,
New York: Oxford UP, 1986, pp. 176–178.
3
In 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association was established in the United
States. Its members were referred to as suffragettes, and their struggle eventually
led to women being granted the right to vote in 11 states. In 1916 the first
woman was elected to Congress, and in 1920 all women in the United States
were given the right to vote.
4
The essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? was first published in
1971, and has since become a classic in art history criticism. See Linda Nochlin,
“Why Are There No Great Women Artists?,” Women, Art and Power: And Other
Essays, New York: Westview Press, 1989. See also Linda Nochlin, “Why Have
There Been No Great Women Artists?,” Muza 3, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in
collaboration with Yediot Aharonot, pp. 48–55 [in Hebrew—translated by
Daphna Levy].
5
Norbert Schneider, “The Early Floral Still Life,” The Art of The Flower: The
Floral Still Life from the 17th to the 20th Century, Herzog, Hans-Michael (ed.),
Zurich: Edition Stemmle, 1996, pp.14–21. Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750),
distinguished Dutch painter, mother of ten and owner of her own studio, was
known as a painter of still life and flowers, and served as court painter for the
6
Introduction
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, at Düsseldorf. Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568—
1625), nicknamed “Velvet Brueghel” and “Flower Brueghel,” a member of the
well-known Brueghel family of Dutch painters, was the son of Pieter Brueghel
the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger, and excelled in painting still
lifes and portraits.
6
Song of Songs 4:12.
7
Song of Songs 2:2.
8
Alec Bristow, The Sex Life of Plants, Cassell Australia, 1979.
9
Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist and geologist (1809–82), is best
known for his theory of natural selection, but his studies on the sexuality of
plants also had a profound impact on biology.
10
The conceptualizations and theoretical constructs of Sigmund Freud, Jacques
Lacan and Jacques Derrida feature in many of this book’s chapters.
11
Alexandre Dumas fils, The Lady with the Camellias, Signet Classic, New York,
2004 (translated by Sir Edmond Gosse). Originally published as La Dame aux
Camélias in Paris in 1848.
12
In all his books, from The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung, 1900)
onwards, Freud consistently avoided putting forward a systematic lexicon of
symbols, either in his discourse on dreams or in relation to other symptoms.
Rather, he interpreted each signifier in a dream according to the dream’s internal
rules as a closed system. Although he recognized the power of symbols and
collective visual images in culture, he often demonstrated how the same symbol
can be loaded with a different, occasionally contrary, meaning, depending on the
context of the dream in question and the dreamer’s life story. This is illustrated
in the dream dubbed “The Language of Flowers,” which appears twice in his
book. See Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, translated by James
Strachey 4, London: Penguin Books, 1976, pp. 426, 430, 437, 463–465,494–495.
13
Jacques Derrida, Glas, translated by John P. Leavey, Jr., Richard Rand, Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1986. According to Derrida, the practice of
deconstruction operates also in relation to the structure of the flower, and is
therefore associated with the feminine sexual organs.
14
Claudette Sartiliot, “Herbarium, Verbarium: The Discourse of Flowers,”
Diacritics 18 Winter 1988): p. 77. In the chapter “Symbolic Dreams,” Freud
discusses, among other things, the dream about camellias. See Freud,
Interpretation of Dreams, 330–331.
15
Jacques Derrida, Positions, Alan Bass (transl.), Chicago & London: The
University of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 36.
16
Defined as all the aspects relating to a person’s sex that are social rather than
biological.
PART I
AN ENCLOSED GARDEN
CHAPTER ONE
THE FLOWER MOTIF AND FEMININE
REPRESENTATION IN THE HISTORY OF ART
There has always been an allegorical connection between the motif of
the flower and women and femininity in the myths and poetry of ancient
Mediterranean cultures. Each culture used flowers to say something about
life. The Greeks and Romans used flowers to express happiness and life's
pleasures, and associated them with the gods that they worshipped. The
early Christians attributed flowers to the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus,
after stripping them of their pagan meanings. Images and motifs from the
world of nature, in textual form, made their way from Judaism and ancient
myths to become a formative motif in the portrayal of key figures in the
new religion being formed by the Church founders. The roles given to
flowers in “pleasure gardens” and in courtly courtship rituals in the Middle
Ages and Renaissance originate in the classical tradition, in which flowers
were an expression of erotic love. The artists glorified Flora, the Roman
goddess of flowers, who was identified with fertility, seasonality, and
renewal, without abandoning the Christian meanings of the flower. In the
eighteenth century, thinkers and philosophers imbued flowers and their
forms and appearance with various aspects of human behavior; while in
the puritanical times of the nineteenth century, flowers held a symbolic
meaning of pious modesty, in the context of romantic love. In the words of
the researcher Beverly Seaton, “each period writes its own language in the
literature and in the arts.”1
Throughout the history of art and the history of literature in the West—
both religious and secular alike—the image of the flower was often linked
to the image of the woman. Analogies and a metaphorical language were
established, whereby a woman is a flower, and a flower represents the
woman. These various contexts were based, on the one hand, on the
religious Christian rationale modeled after the Virgin Mary, and on the
other hand, on the “natural” rationale, modeled on the goddesses Venus,
Flora, and Proserpina (in Greek: Persephone). Hence, one can distinguish
between two patterns: the religious, based on the Christian tradition, and
the secular, based on the Pagan tradition. The former saw the flower as a
The Flower Motif and Feminine Representation in the History of Art
9
symbol of the feminine attributes of an unchanging and passive nature,
virginity, purity, modesty, righteousness, obedience, discretion, reticence
and submissiveness; while the latter saw the flower as an expression of
dynamic and active feminine attributes—fertility, growth, sexuality,
sensuality, temptation, openness and rotundity. In line with this division,
in Christian culture the white flower and closed bud symbolized virginity
and purity, while secular culture adopted the open, colorful and exposed
flower as a symbol of sensuality and sexuality.
To reconcile the Virgin Mary’s modest character with her portrayal as
an attractive and desirable woman, while preserving her feminine
attributes, theologians and formulators of Christian aesthetics chose the
rose metaphor, while ensuring that a prickly and impenetrable hedge
surrounded her.
The contradictory symbolic approaches of classical culture and
Christian thought troubled secular and religious artists alike. In Part I of
this book, we shall examine the meanings accompanying the flower motif
in representations of women and their status in Western society. We begin
with ancient myths and texts such as the Song of Songs, which guided
Christian authorities in forging the iconography of Mary as the Virgin
Mother, and achieved extensive manifestations in its representations in
secular Western art.
A. The pagan symbolism of the flower: ancient myths
Formal motifs of flowers and native plants have been discovered in
archaeological findings of the most ancient cultures. In ancient Egyptian
and Indian myths, the opening of the petals of the lotus flower revealed the
Creator God. The opening of the lotus flower at sunrise and its closure at
sunset was linked to the sun, which was perceived in the ancients’
consciousness as a divine source. Thus, this special flower became a
metonymic symbol for the life-giving God. The ritual legacy of the lotus
flower2 originates in beliefs that the world was created from an ancient
ocean - with water symbolizing the ocean - and the lotus flower, floating
on the water, was perceived in these cultures as the divine womb.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Hathor, the celestial goddess of
women, fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, of love, joy, music and dance,
is often depicted in the form of a cow, or with a crown perched on her
head in the shape of horns with a red circle in the middle representing the
sun. Occasionally, however, she appears as a personification of a lotus
flower. She was depicted as holding a flower, and thus linked in the minds
of the ancient Egyptians to Re, the ancient sun god, father of the gods and
10
Chapter One
ruler of life, light, heat and supreme justice. Re was usually represented by
the head of a hawk or snake, however, he often appeared with his head
emerging from a lotus flower, or as a child lying or sitting on a lotus
flower.3 The lotus flower was also associated with the idea of rebirth. In
the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the deceased was reborn from the
lotus flower—an idea derived from the cult of the sun and the perception
of the lotus flower as a woman’s womb from which all human beings are
born.4
In the eighth century BCE the lotus image spread from Egypt to
Phoenicia and thence to Assyria and Persia. Archaeological findings
revealed depictions of Phoenician goddesses holding a lotus flower as a
symbol of their creative powers.5 The flower, in its stylized guise of
rosettes, was also as a decorative motif in Babylonian and Assyrian art,
appearing to serve, along with the dove, as an occasional symbol of the
goddess Astarte (or Ishtar, as she was known in Babylon)—the goddess of
love, fertility and life. Astarte was also the goddess of war, and thought to
be capable of withholding her blessings on humans—in the form of crops,
plants or trees. Worship rituals of Astarte involved promiscuity and sexual
rapture.6
Early Greek myths were rich in symbolic images of flowers, representing
values such as beauty, fertility, sexuality and love. Chief among these was
the ancient myth of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, goddess of love and
beauty (or Venus, as she was known in Rome). According to this myth,
Aphrodite, was born out of the foam of the waves, near the island of
Cyprus. In an effort to match this divine example of supreme beauty, the
earth put forth a rose, which was unparalleled in its combination of
delicacy and fragrance.7 Since then, the rose has been called “the flower of
Venus,” and is viewed as the flower of pride and triumphant love.8
The Greek myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone links them to
the change of seasons, vegetation and blossoms, and Demeter’s pain with
the fertility of the earth. At the start of the second Hymn to Demeter in one
of the earliest Greek poems, Homer provided an exuberant description of
wild flowers as the setting of Persephone’s abduction by Hades:
“She was picking flowers: roses, crocus, and beautiful violets.
Up and down the soft meadow. Iris blossoms too she picked, and hyacinth.
And the narcissus, which was grown as a lure for the flower-faced girl.”9
The myth describes the bounty of nature, the types of flowers and the
joy of youth in young and innocent women—all of which is cut short with
the appearance of the terrible god who abducts Persephone, after she is
lured away from her friends by the wonderful daffodil blossoms. Hades
The Flower Motif and Feminine Representation in the History of Art
11
takes her with him to the underworld, tearing her away from her natural
origins and bringing her to the dark world in the bowels of the productive
earth. The various flowers in the myth symbolize the innocent and radiant
world, which contrasts so sharply with Hades and hints of lust and female
sexuality. The spring season, and the flowers in particular, are associated
in this myth with the passage of time and the cycle of life. From the
nineteenth century onwards, research into the Hymn to Demeter has
focused on the relationship between the myth and the cult of the goddess,
and in the twentieth century, psychoanalytical and feminist readings of it
were added. The myth of Persephone is reminiscent of other abduction
stories, such as that of Daphne, Io, Europa, the Daughters of Danaus, and
Psyche.10
We see, therefore, that ancient cultures worshipped and revered
flowers, plants and animals to a notable degree. Some of the rituals and
myths formed the basis of the writings of the Roman poet Ovid. This is
particularly evident in the epic work Metamorphoses, which deals, as its
name suggests, in formal metamorphoses, and in the poem Fasti (also
known as the Book of Days, or On the Roman Calendar), which is
dedicated to the gods and festivals. The mythical couples in Ovid’s works
were of particular interest to artists and sculptors from the early
Renaissance onwards.11 Bernini’s sculpture Apollo & Daphne in the
seventeenth century, which depicts the moment when Daphne changes
from a beautiful and desirable young woman into a laurel tree, captures
one of the most vivid of Ovid’s descriptions of transformations ever to
have been represented in art. Although it is not about flowers, per se, it
expresses the general idea of a female figure changing into a botanical
one. Another ancient classical myth involves the nymph Clytie, who is
deeply in love with the sun god Apollo, and after sitting for nine days
without food or drink, gazing at him longingly and obsessively tracking
his progress in the sky, slowly transforms into a turnsole (in modern
traditions, a sunflower).
At this juncture we should mention three other Greek myths that are
associated with flowers, albeit in the context of young men rather than
women, but worthy of inclusion here because of their central role in Greek
mythology. First, Narcissus, the handsome young man who loved no one
and was punished by falling in love with his own reflection in a pool, and
killing himself on realizing that he could never have his heart’s desire,
which gave rise to the narcissus flower. The second myth is about
Hyacinth, a handsome youth and lover of Apollo, who during a playful
game of discus throwing dies in Apollo’s arms, when the discus strikes
him in the head. His head thrown back like a flower with a broken stem.
12
Chapter One
Grief-stricken, Apollo creates the hyacinth flower from his blood. The
third myth involves Adonis—a beautiful boy raised, loved by, and fought
over by Aphrodite and Persephone—who is killed by a wild boar, and
from whose blood springs the blood-red anemone.12
In many ancient myths, the flower has a dual meaning: on the one
hand, modest and appealing—on the other, seductive and erotic. In
Christian theology it is depicted either as a fertile womb, or as an enclosed
garden—a symbol of virginity—which together played a central part in the
formulation of the image of Mary as the Virgin Mother. Theologians
sought to create figures that were both spiritual and holy, and the ways in
which they should be worshipped in the new religion. The Western flower
culture that had flourished in ancient times gradually receded in the early
centuries of the Common Era, as the Church sought to distance itself from
the pagan traditions and rejected trappings of opulence in favor of
expressions of kindness, humility and charity.13 Nonetheless, ancient
myths were exploited, including those associated with flowers, with
suitable adaptations to suit the emerging Christian tradition.
B. From a “lily among the thorns” to Mary’s white lily:
Judaism and early Christianity
Many poets and writers throughout the ages have written in praise of
the flourishing Garden of Eden. In the ancient canonical Judaic writings—
the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud—there is limited reference to the
subject of flowers, and such as there is centers more on the scents of plants
and flowers rather than on their form. Only three types of flowers are
mentioned in these writings, and even they are not easy to identify
scientifically: the white lily is associated with the species Lilium
candidum, or white Madonna lily, as it came to be known in Christianity;
the “rose of Sharon” is commonly thought to be Pancratium maratimum,
or by its more common names: sand daffodil, sand lily and the Lily of St.
Nicholas; and the narcissus (Narcissus), which is commonly attributed to
what is known today as Lily-of-the-field.
The absence of descriptions of flowers in Jewish religious literature is
very evident in later periods, as well.14 However, there is no biblical
prohibition of visual representation or depictions of plants of any type,
which is why, under the influence of surrounding nations, wide use was
made of plant and flower motifs at Jewish burial sites, as well as in early
synagogues.15 Interestingly, there was frequent allegorical use of plant and
floral motifs in Jewish art, especially in connection with female figures.
One of many examples can be found in the Byzantine mosaic floor at a
The Flower Motif and Feminine Representation in the History of Art
13
synagogue at Beit Alpha, depicting four young maidens who represent the
four seasons, and are bearing, or are surrounded by, fruit or plants. A
zodiac, framed within a square, with female characters adorning each
corner, is typical of mosaic floors of many synagogues from the late fifth
century to seventh century CE.16
Metaphorical images of flowers also appear in the biblical Song of
Songs, which has been the subject of numerous interpretations over the
centuries. The rabbinical tradition defined it as a love poem between God
and the Jewish people, but in secular biblical research it is viewed as an
erotic poem,17 and is very rich in symbolism drawn from the natural world.
One of the best known of these is “As the lily among thorns”—an image
that has given rise to many visual depictions, in Christian, Jewish and
Israeli art. During the formation of Christian theology, the Song of Songs
was given too many interpretations in the writings of the early Church
fathers, and played a central role in the Christian iconography of Mary.
This is evident in the Latin terms used in the floral imagery associated
with the Virgin Mother in the prayers common to various Christian
communities—most commonly Flos campi (“the rose of Sharon”—Song
of Songs 2:1); Lilium inter spinas (“the lily among thorns”—Song of
Songs 2:2); and hortus conclusus (“an enclosed garden”—Song of Songs
4:12) .18
Later we shall see how the symbolic use of flowers in Christian art
extended to the depictions of the Garden of Eden, even though the biblical
text makes no mention whatsoever of flowers there. The many epithets
given to Mary, inspired by the floral imagery of the Hebrew Bible, lends
support to the view that the biblical Garden of Eden, and not only the Song
of Songs, served as an endless source of flower depictions in the Christian
context. A contrasting analogy then began to emerge, between the refined,
virtuous, and beloved Mary—who is portrayed in Christian theology as the
“second Eve”—and the biblical Eve, who is presented in Christian thought
and art as a seductress and mother of all evil.
C. “An enclosed garden”: metaphorical expressions
of Mary as a central figure in Christianity
The absence of flower descriptions in the biblical story of the Garden
of Eden did not prevent the extensive use of symbols in the depictions of
Old Testament scenes in Christian art—especially those of Adam and Eve.
The Tree of Knowledge, the symbol of temptation, grows in the Garden of
Eden and bears the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Eating its fruit
14
Chapter One
symbolizes both the loss of innocence and the fall of Adam and Eve due to
their sin—the Original Sin—which lies at the heart of Christian thought.19
In Christian iconography, the flower has assumed many layered
meanings and has come to symbolize many saints and martyrs. The white
Madonna lily, as its name suggests, uniquely represents Mary, mother of
Jesus, as a chaste, virtuous, and noble woman: a virgin mother. In the early
fourth century, when Christianity was recognized as legal and the official
religion in the Roman Empire, and it had to formulate a worldview and
establish new symbols and images, a difficulty arose in defining the place
of women in society through the image of Mary, the Virgin Mother. The
need to draw a clear distinction between positive attributes that should be
emulated, and negative attributes that should be condemned and rejected,
led the theologians to develop the contrast between Mary and biblical Eve,
as previously described.
The repertoire of Christian art, with its many symbolic motifs, drew on
many textual sources apart from the canonical books of the Old
Testament—including classical books about nature, such as Natural
History, the early encyclopedia by Pliny the Elder in the late first century
CE, which is considered to be the most comprehensive one of its kind in
the ancient world, as well as many other writings on medicinal herbs and
their meanings.20
Already in the early Christian period, there was a clear and deliberate
trend to convert the pagan symbolism of the ancient period into Christian
symbolism. Thus, the titles that had been given to the gods Zeus, Hera,
Athena, etc., became attributed to Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or to the Church
itself.21 However, in the Middle Ages these symbols became increasingly
indirect and more abstract, to the point where they became decipherable
only to a select few who were familiar with the logic of the new complex
thinking. Symbolism in Christian art took on a moral or religious
character, and the Church demanded exclusivity in its interpretations.
Since the Church also dictated the subjects for the artists to paint, it
enforced a fixed set of symbols. A review of the symbolic meaning of
flowers from antiquity to the medieval period reveals that, of the many
flowers that are familiar to us, the rose came to be held as a paragon in the
Western tradition; its distinctive features serving as an analogy of key
figures in Christian theology. Notable examples are the metaphors Rosa
Mystica (“Mystical Rose”) and Rosamundi (“Rose of Heaven”), which
were associated with Mary from the twelfth century onwards.
According to noted art historian Nurith Kenaan-Kedar, it was Emile
Mâle, one of the greatest scholars of medieval art, who dubbed this art
“holy writing.” Kenaan-Kedar explains that the symbolism of the physical
The Flower Motif and Feminine Representation in the History of Art
15
and real world, in the medieval period, was representative of an imagined
reality, that is often more significant as it reflects a higher world order.22
Accordingly, allegory assumes a particularly layered image that also
functions as a symbol. The role of the flower image, in portraying Mary’s
noble qualities, is an exemplary example of this phenomenon.
The period of Romanesque architecture—particularly the eleventh and
twelfth centuries—has been described as the “Renaissance” of the
medieval period.23 In it, women assumed a greater role than in the art of
previous periods, and feminine archetypes began to filter down into
secular art, where they served as models for the depiction of the female
figure—and continue to do so to this day. One of the most sensual
depictions of Eve is in a fragment of the lintel of the northern gate of the
cathedral at Autun,24 created by Gislebertus ca. 1130. Researchers of the
period believe that Gislebertus completed the scene with a parallel
depiction of Adam on the left, and the snake between them. During the
twelfth century, the flower assumed an increasingly dominant role in
portraying feminine attributes in Christian art. The Virgin Mary became
the female figure at the heart of the Christian faith and worldview, and
became known simply as “Madonna.” Many churches were built and
dedicated to her, and in France, most churches came to be known as Nôtre
Dame (“Our Lady”). Many towns made Mary their patron saint and
defender, and in Christian consciousness she assumed the role of
intermediary between humanity and her son Jesus, who would sit in
judgment on the Judgment Day.
In the Romanesque religious art of the twelfth century, a clear and
sharp distinction was made between three key types of women: the
archetypal image of the biblical Eve (usually shown tempting Adam to sin
by eating from the apple of the Tree of Knowledge); Mary Magdalene
(washing the feet of Christ and drying them with her hair); and the Virgin
Mary, holding her infant son as he is admired by the three Kings of the
East. Art researcher Andreas Petzold notes that all three women are
defined by their relationship with men: Eve, as Adam’s sensual partner
and temptress; Mary Magdalene, as one who negates herself and offers
selfless love to Jesus Christ; and the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ,
who is defined as a vessel through which God assumes human form.25
In Gislebertus’s stone relief, replete with floral imagery (Fig. 1-1), Eve
is portrayed as crawling through the plants and flowers in the Garden, her
body arched and leaning on her right elbow, her private parts strategically
obscured by a tree in the middle. Her left arm is extended behind her in the
midst of picking the apple of another tree, while her right hand is placed
next to her mouth, as if about to whisper in Adam’s ear the idea of tasting
16
Chapter One
the forbidden fruit.26 Although this sinful Eve is perceived in the study as
one of the most erotically charged female figures in Romanesque art,
Petzold believes the image suggests a certain naivety as well as sinfulness,
because she is approaching Adam in a dignified, quiet manner. To explain
the significance of the artist’s decision to depict her with two fingers
placed over her mouth, like a whispering gesture, it should be noted that at
that time women were forbidden to speak in church.27
Fig. 1-1: Gislebertus, Eve, stone tablet, height 1 m., width 1 m. ca. 1130, fragment
of crossbar of the north gate at the Cathedral of Saint Lazare (Cathédrale SaintLazare d'Autun), Roulin Museum, Autun.
Kenaan-Kedar notes that, contrary to Eve’s sensual depiction in this
relief - as a sign of her sinfulness - she is usually depicted with drooping
breasts. Her naked body appears in paintings as a marker, rather than as
something sensual—in contrast to the depictions of Venus, for example,
whose physical sensuality is accentuated and oriented toward the viewer.28
In this regard, Gislebertus’s depiction of Eve is an exception to the rule.
Moreover, he did not limit his use of stylized plant motifs that symbolize
the Tree of Knowledge to that which was written in the Bible, but makes
extensive use of floral themes that emphasize Eve’s smooth and sensual
body through contrast. Many studies have shown that this use of floral
themes is repeated in the depictions of sensual women throughout the
history of art.29
The Flower Motif and Feminine Representation in the History of Art
17
The visual depiction of Mary began to evolve in early Christianity. The
image of the Madonna holding the baby Jesus appeared as early as the
fifth century, and over the following centuries the image of Mary as a
divine woman, at once mother of God and a virgin, began to emerge.30 The
veneration cult of Mary became even more pronounced in the twelfth
century, to the point where she became the exemplar for women of all
parts of the social spectrum, including noble women and queens.
When the image of a rose appeared in Romanesque and Gothic
sculptures and paintings in the medieval period and beyond - either in the
capitals of columns or in illustrated prayer books - it is depicted mainly in
the context of the Madonna image, as an attribute. One example of this can
be seen at the Basilica Church Ste. Madeleine in Vezelay, in the region of
Burgundy, France. The archivolt—the stone arch, framing the
tympanum,31 above the left entrance to the church—is entirely covered in
carved open flowers. According to Kenaan-Kedar, these are likely meant
to be white lilies or roses, symbolizing Mary who was known in the
twelfth century as the “rose of the world.”32 The decorated arch enclosing
the image of Mary might be thought of as a metaphor for the “enclosed
garden.”
In the Christian tradition, as we have seen, the rose played a key role. It
appears in various faith-related objects such as the rosary, made of
crushed rose petals strung together like beads on a necklace (hence its
name, from the Latin rosarium—“rose garden”), representing the Virgin
Mary.33 This string is designed to bring spiritual salvation to the believer,
with each bead serving as a kind of silent reading of a sacred mantra.
Originally, the rosary was dedicated to the Lady of the Rose Garden, an
image inspired by the icon paintings of the Virgin Mother, showing her
surrounded by bouquets of roses, or a rose garden. The wall of roses
symbolizes Mary's virginity and the fact that she is unattainable.
In France of the twelfth century—when the Romanesque architectural
style gave way to monumental Gothic architecture—the rose window
evolved from a simple circle, originating from the oculus of Romanesque
cathedrals, into a decorative Gothic element in the form of a stylized
flower that created a celestial ambience. With the addition of stained glass,
the simple circle assumed a geometric and mystical complexity. The
cathedral interiors were bathed from floor to ceilings in gem-like colored
light, in spectacular patterns that were seen as celestial symbols capable of
mesmerizing the faithful and curing them of their ills. Gothic architecture
scholar Georges Duby points out that the rose window makes clear that the
rosette windows were a symbolic evocation of roses, and - as the symbol
of Mary - were also an allusion to her role as an ecclesiastical figure.34
18
Chapter One
Mary, the Virgin Mother, assumed many symbols over time, most
notably of flowers in various guises: the white lily; the thornless rose and
enclosed garden, which attested to her uniqueness and purity in a manner
that allowed her to be presented both as mother and as a virgin, and the
woman who conceived the son of God through immaculate conception and
gave birth to him in a painless birth.
Only a small part of the iconography that developed around the image
of Mary originated from the Gospel itself—including that which related to
flowers. Rather, it evolved over the centuries, in response to the Church’s
need for a mother figure to venerate, as in ancient religions. Over time,
Western culture established the sublime attributes that women were
supposed to aspire to and emulate, based on theologians’ descriptions of
key women figures in Christianity. The first and foremost of these is Mary,
the Virgin Mother, who is blessed with discretion, generosity and
taciturnity. Her symbolic imagery, chiefly the images of flowers we
mentioned earlier, was so embedded in the culture that they filtered
through the centuries into religious art not only in direct depictions of her,
but as a visual metaphor for her, and her attributes, even in her absence.
The rose and the white lily, which in Greek and Roman mythology had
symbolized Aphrodite/Venus and Hera/Juno, respectively (the rose created
from the former’s blood; the white lily, from the latter’s milk) seeped into
Christian iconography as symbols of femininity. The white lily became a
symbol of purity, and as such particularly linked to Mary the Virgin
Mother, and came to represent her, although it was also associated with
other holy virgins.35
The most common form of the white lily motif in Christian art appears
in works about the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Shepherds. In
the former, the flower appears as the Virgin Mary and her Immaculate
Conception—usually in the guise of the Archangel Gabriel carrying a
flower, or as a flower placed in a vase next to her. A clear example of this
is the painting Annunciation (1472–75) by a young Leonardo da Vinci, in
which Gabriel is holding a blossoming branch of lilies with his left hand,
and with his right hand delivering God’s announcement to the surprised
virgin. In the depictions of the “Adoration of the Shepherds”—especially
in the Netherlands—the lily is usually placed in a vase situated in the first
plane of the painting.
According to major scholars such as Robert Koch, the Portinari
Altarpiece or Portinari Triptych, by the Flemish painter Hugo van der
Goes (1476–78), employs similar themes and symbols. Koch's research
offers an extensive interpretation of the meaning of the flowers in this
painting, which is also known as the Adoration of the Shepherds, as well