Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Attributed to Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino (active Florence, second half of the 15C) Madonna and Child before a Rose hedge

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Sandro Botticelli (Italian artist, 1445-1510) Madonna and Child with a young John the Baptist by Roses

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Attributed to Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino (active Florence, 2nd half of the 15C) Madonna and Child 1460-80 Madonna of the Roses

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Biagio D'Antonio (1466-1516) Madonna and Infant with Angel & Roses

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Sandro Botticelli (Italian artist, 1445-1510) Madonna and Child in a Niche Decorated with Roses

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Attributed to Stefan Lochner (German artist, 1400-1451) Madonna of the Rose Bush, ca 1440, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

Symbolism of The Roses

The Virgin's sitting within an enclosed garden lined with Roses, suggests metaphorical associations with the paradise bower of the Song of Songs. The theme of the Virgin in a garden can be found in the Biblical book Song of Solomon 2:2:  "I am the Rose of Sharon, The lily of the valleys. As a lily among the thistles..."

The Biblical book of  Ecclesiasticus 24:14, also refers to Roses & palm trees (with which the virgin is sometimes associated: "I have grown tall as a palm in En-Gedi, As the Rose bushes of Jericho." Sometimes Mary was called "The Rose of Jericho."

The Virgin Mary is called a "Rose without thorns," because she was exempt from Original Sin.

In Renaissance art, a garland of Roses is often an allusion to the Rosary of the Virgin.

The Glastonbury or Christmas Rose is both the symbol for the Virgin Mary & for the Infant Jesus.  It is said that the Glastonbury Rose is an exquisite flower but it also bears the sharpest of thorns, like those that were plaited into Jesus's crucifixion crown. This Rose, reportedly blooms just before January 6, the Christian Feast of Epiphany.

Illustrated manuscripts & early depictions of landscapes in portrayals of Biblical gardens give us a glimpse of gardens familiar & imagined during those periods. The thorns on the Rose bushes are meant to ward off anyone trying to get to Mary. The theme of the Virgin in a small, safe, enclosed garden can be found in the Biblical  Solomon 4:12: "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up."

Mary was often depicted as a symbol of wisdom, & she was represented in many paintings with an open book.

In Catholic symbolism, the red Rose is a symbol of Martyrdom, while the white Rose is a symbol of purity since the earliest years of the Church.  In the Christian religion, like the cross, the Rose can have paradoxical meanings. It is at once a symbol of purity & a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection & earthly passion; virginity & fertility; death & life.

After the fall of Rome, medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) was in transition. Rulers were fighting wars against rival nobles. Between 1096 & 1291, European Christians launched the Crusades, a series of 8 violent & ruthless religious attacks on the Muslims to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. European castles & monasteries were built defensively high on hills or mountains & walls were erected to protect against invaders. Gardens often were hedged to protect not only against invading enemies but also against interlopers, thieves, unwelcome visitors, & marauding livestock & wild animals.

During this period in art, the Virgin is often depicted in a small, enclosed garden. The spot is sealed off from the larger landscape by a monastery or castle wall. Mary is allegorically represented as a fortress. From a practical perspective, for the medieval woman, the enclosed garden was designed to prove & maintain her loyalty to her entitled spouse. Purity of the bloodlines was a great societal concern for the medieval noble husband. When kings & lords left home to go to battle, they wanted to feel assured; that their wives remained inaccessible to rapists or suitors ot temptation.

Monasteries also followed this layout, & there the gardens there are known as cloister gardens from Latin claustrum, "enclosure" & were called "hortus conclusus." With the number of monasteries at their highest during Europe's medieval period, Christain devotion to Mary popularized these gardens.

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy (fl 1480-1510 in Bruges) 1475-1480 Virgin of the Rose Garden at the Detroit Institute of Art

One of the many anonymous Flemish artists in the generation of Hans Memling has been identified as the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy after a painting located in the church of St James in Bruges.  In the foreground of this painting the Virgin Mary & the Christ Child are seated with 4 female martyr-saints, Catherine, Barbara, Ursula, & Cecilia. The Virgin & her party sit in a small, enclosed garden before a hedge of red roses. The city in the background has been identified as Bruges. Depictions of the city of Bruges in the background of several of this artist's paintings record changes in the belfry, which was being remodeled from 1483 to c. 1502.

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Stephano da Verona (1379-1438) The Virgin and Child with Angels, c 1430

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

1447 Domenico Veneziano (c. 1405-1461). Madonna and Child

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Attributed to Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino (active Florence, second half of the 15C) Madonna and Child with a Background of Roses

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Sandro Botticelli (Italian artist, 1445-1510) Madonna and Child Crowned by Angels amid Roses, detail

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino (active Florence, 2nd half of the 15C) Madonna and Child before a rose hedge

Springtime! Roses & The Madonna in a Symbolic Garden

The Madonna of the Rose Garden St. with Catherine of Alexandria (Madonna del Roseto) is attributed to Michelino da Besozzo or Stefano da Verona. Dating to c. 1420–1435. Castelvecchio Museum of Verona.

This painting shows the traditional theme of the Madonna with Child within an enclosure of roses, symbol of her virginity, in the presence of St. Catherine of Alexandria. The latter, as a princess, is crowned, & is accompanied by her martyrdom at the torture wheel. There are also numerous angels. They are performing a series of activities: reading; collecting petals of rose; playing near a Gothic font (symbolizing the definition of Mary as Fons gratiae, "Spring of Grace"). Two peacocks are roaming in the garden: they are a symbol of the immortality of Christ since early Christian times, when their flesh was considered not liable to rot.

Symbolism of The Roses

The Virgin's sitting within an enclosed garden lined with Roses, suggests metaphorical associations with the paradise bower of the Song of Songs. The theme of the Virgin in a garden can be found in the Biblical book Song of Solomon 2:2:  "I am the Rose of Sharon, The lily of the valleys. As a lily among the thistles..."

The Biblical book of  Ecclesiasticus 24:14, also refers to Roses & palm trees (with which the virgin is sometimes associated: "I have grown tall as a palm in En-Gedi, As the Rose bushes of Jericho." Sometimes Mary was called "The Rose of Jericho."

The Virgin Mary is called a "Rose without thorns," because she was exempt from Original Sin.

In Renaissance art, a garland of Roses is often an allusion to the Rosary of the Virgin.

The Glastonbury or Christmas Rose is both the symbol for the Virgin Mary & for the Infant Jesus.  It is said that the Glastonbury Rose is an exquisite flower but it also bears the sharpest of thorns, like those that were plaited into Jesus's crucifixion crown. This Rose, reportedly blooms just before January 6, the Christian Feast of Epiphany.

Illustrated manuscripts & early depictions of landscapes in portrayals of Biblical gardens give us a glimpse of gardens familiar & imagined during those periods. The thorns on the Rose bushes are meant to ward off anyone trying to get to Mary. The theme of the Virgin in a small, safe, enclosed garden can be found in the Biblical  Solomon 4:12: "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up."

Mary was often depicted as a symbol of wisdom, & she was represented in many paintings with an open book.

In Catholic symbolism, the red Rose is a symbol of Martyrdom, while the white Rose is a symbol of purity since the earliest years of the Church.  In the Christian religion, like the cross, the Rose can have paradoxical meanings. It is at once a symbol of purity & a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection & earthly passion; virginity & fertility; death & life.

After the fall of Rome, medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) was in transition. Rulers were fighting wars against rival nobles. Between 1096 & 1291, European Christians launched the Crusades, a series of 8 violent & ruthless religious attacks on the Muslims to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. European castles & monasteries were built defensively high on hills or mountains & walls were erected to protect against invaders. Gardens often were hedged to protect not only against invading enemies but also against interlopers, thieves, unwelcome visitors, & marauding livestock & wild animals.

During this period in art, the Virgin is often depicted in a small, enclosed garden. The spot is sealed off from the larger landscape by a monastery or castle wall. Mary is allegorically represented as a fortress. From a practical perspective, for the medieval woman, the enclosed garden was designed to prove & maintain her loyalty to her entitled spouse. Purity of the bloodlines was a great societal concern for the medieval noble husband. When kings & lords left home to go to battle, they wanted to feel assured; that their wives remained inaccessible to rapists or suitors ot temptation.

Monasteries also followed this layout, & there the gardens there are known as cloister gardens from Latin claustrum, "enclosure" & were called "hortus conclusus." With the number of monasteries at their highest during Europe's medieval period, Christain devotion to Mary popularized these gardens.

Springtime! 15C Madonnas & Baby Jesus with Symbolic Garden Fruits & Vegetables - Carlo Crivelli (1430-1495)

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, 1430-1495)  Madonna and Child c 1480

Unlike the naturalistic trends gaining popularity in Florence during his lifetime, Crivelli's style continues to represent the older, courtly International Gothic sensibility. His settings are jewel-like & full of elaborate allegorical detail. His works can be identified by his characteristic use of garden fruits, vegetables, & flowers.

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, 1430-1495) Madonna and Child c 1480s

Commissioned by the Franciscans and Dominicans of Ascoli, Crivelli's work is exclusively religious in nature. His paintings consist largely of Madonna and Child images. Crivelli's work fulfills the spiritual needs of his patrons. Fruit is often used as a symbol of the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit: Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Forbearance, Goodness, Kindness, Mildness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continency, Chastity. Crivelli's work is rife with multiple layers of symbolism. Crivelli drew on a long teaching tradition of church doctrine, which he incorporated as visual instruction in to the work, here in the symbolic fruits & vegetables including pears, apples, apricots, cherries, & cucumbers. Trompe-l’oeil details are played against the doll-like prettiness of the Virgin. Crivelli might use apples & flies as symbols of sin and evil opposed to the cucumber & the goldfinch, symbols of redemption in the same painting.

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna Enthroned  1476

The pear along with the peach, the apple, & the pomegranate could be the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise. The peach, which is Persian in origin, comes from the area where the Garden of Paradise is thought to have been. All these are orchard fruits which are referenced in Canticles 4:13; and in Crivelli’s day, since the specific peach was an unknown, it was acceptable to have various interpretations of it. A connotation for the pear is that it is a symbol for the Virgin and the Christ, while at the same time symbolizing the love of the Christ child for humankind. The pear being held by the Christ child and supported by His Mother, becomes a symbol for the fall & the redemption through Christ born of Mary. 

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) 1480 Madonna and Child

The apple, while often depicted as the forbidden fruit eaten by Eve, is also a prefiguration of the Crucifixion in addition to representing the Incarnation in the Virgin, the new Eve in the newly emerging Garden of earth. The cherry is simultaneously a fruit in the Garden of Paradise enjoyed by the blessed and may be interpeted as Christ's coming shedding of His blood at the Crucifixion. The pomegranate, too, is possibly the forbidden fruit but is also a symbol of resurrection, immortality & chastity.

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Detail of above painting Madonna and Child

The cucumber, which figures so prominently in many of Crivelli’s paintings, is phallic, bitter, & misshapen representing mankind's sin, especially lust. It is also associated with Jonah & the gourd which protected him & the resurrection of Jonah from the belly of the whale for 3 days before being spewed out (Jonah 4:6).

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna and Child

In Venetian art, these symbols were seldom used after 1460, but Crivelli continued to use garden fruits & vegetables & flowers on to the 1490s - always in his Madonnas. Crivelli intends to remind his viewers of the meaning of the peach & the cherries as both forbidden fruit & redemptive fruit. He also paints lilies & roses some of which are buds. The white of the lily is widely accepted as a symbol for purity as Madonna’s virginity. It is often depicted in scenes of the Annunciation - sometimes held by the Angel Gabriel. The red roses are to honor her, and the white roses again speak of her virginity. She is sometimes referred to as the rose without thorns (without sin). 

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Virgin Enthroned

A single white rose symbolizes to the religious symbol devotee the Virgin Mother. Due to his early training in Padua and Venice where symbolism was an expected part of the painter’s vocabulary, Crivelli uses his art in this fashion naturally, including the duality in symbolic meaning of inanimate objects with the works of Northern Renaissance painters such as the Master of Flemalle, Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden of the 15C in the Netherlands. “But so personal to him (Crivelli) did his symbolism become that his pupils and imitators copied from it only one or two motifs whose meaning was generally obvious, notably the apple.”

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, 1430-1495)  Virgin Mary with Child, Museo del Castelvechio, Verona, ca 1460

His use of gold, red, pink & black with exquisite textures &patterns harkens back to the International Style used by Simone Martini in late Italian Gothic painting (14C) and then by the Limbourg brothers in the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry in Northern painting (early 15C). Additionally Gentile da Fabriano clothes his figures in similar sumptuousness in his Adoration of the Magi (early 15C) and Rogier van der Weyden’s Escorial Deposition details gold brocade on one of his figures (early 15C). 

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, 1430-1495)  Vittorio Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1440-1501) Madonna and Child 1482

As the religious Renaissance faithful looked at these representations of the Virgin & Child. From garden fruits, vegtables, laurel leaves, & flowers, Christian mysteries would be visualized over & over again through the paint brush of Crivelli, who created such sumptuous, symbolic beauty. The result differentiates him from other 15C Italian artists due to the symbolic naturalism, especially garden fruits & vegetables, in his works.

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495)  Madonna and Child c 1480

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Enthroned Virgin and Child, with musical Angels [and Saints Bonaventure, John the Baptist, Louis of Toulouse, and Francis of Assisi]

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna and Child

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna and Child 1470

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna and Child

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna Camerino

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna Della Candeletta

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna of Passion

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Sebastian

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian painter, 1435-1495) Madonna of the Swallow 1492

Attributed to Carlo Crivelli (Italian artist, c 1430-1495) Madonna and Child

Information included in this post:
Beverley Thiel Hood Symbolism and Meaning in the Madonna della Candeletta, c. 1490 C.E. by Carlo Crivelli.

Bibliography:

Fisher, Cecilia. Flowers and Fruits, National Gallery Publications Limited, 1998. 

Hall, James. Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art, 

Westview Press, 1917.

Hart, Frederick and Wilkins, David G. History of Italian Renaissance Art, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003. 

Hunt, Leigh. “Carlo Crivelli”. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4.  Online Edition, 2003.

Lightbown, R. W. Carlo Crivelli, Yale University Press, 2004. 

Tansey, Richard G. Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 10th Edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996. 

Watkins, Jonathan. Untricking the Eye, The Uncomfortable Legacy of Carlo Crivelli, Art International (0004-3230), Issue: 5, 1988.

Springtime! Madonnas & Baby Jesus in Imagined Gardens with Meads of Wildflowers Underfoot

Attributed to Stefan Lochner (German artist, 1400-1451) Madonna and Child in an enclosed Garden - Hortus Conclusus. The Virgin sits in a what is made to appear as a small, enclosed garden. The spot is sealed off from the remainder of the landscape by a monestery or castle wall. Mary is allegorically represented as a fortress.

After the fall of Rome, medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) was in transition. Rulers were fighting wars against rival nobles, & Christians were launching crusades against Muslims. Castles & monasteries were built defensively high on hills or mountains & walls were erected to protect against invaders. Gardens often were hedged to protect not only against invading enemies but also against interlopers, thieves, & marauding livestock & wild animals.  During this period in art, the Virgin is often depicted in a small, enclosed garden. The spot is sealed off from the larger landscape by a monastery or castle wall. Mary is allegorically represented as a fortress. Monasteries also followed this layout, & there the gardens there are known as cloister gardens from Latin claustrum, "enclosure" & were called "hortus conclusus." With the number of monasteries at their highest during Europe's medieval period, Christain devotion to Mary popularized these gardens.

Attributed to Master of Flémalle or Robert Campin (1375-1444)  Madonna by a Grassy Bank. The Virgin and Child are in an imaginary hortus conclusus (enclosed garden) with Angels, c 1430. This is in the form of a Madonna of Humility seated on the ground  - to indicate her humility. She is sitting in a bed of wildflowers.  The earliest surviving works of this particular portrayal of the Virgin are found in frescoes & panel paintings in Italy & Avignon from the 1340s. Robert Campin, 1375-1444, who is often  identified as the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is considered one of the first great masters of Flemish and Early Netherlandish painting.

1410 The Garden of Eden, a Hortus Conclusus Garden. Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt 

Themes traditionally associated with the medieval Madonna are combined here: the Madonna of Humility appears in a Hortus Conclusus, or enclosed garden. In the hortus coclusus, Mary is allegorically represented as a protective fortress. From a practical perspective, for the medieval woman, the enclosed garden was designed to prove & maintain her loyalty to her entitled spouse. Purity of the bloodlines was a great societal concern for the medieval husband. When kings & lords left home to go to battle, they wanted to feel assured; that their wives remained inaccessible to rapists or suitors or temptation.

Unknown Master, German (active 1450s in Cologne). Madonna on a Crescent Moon in Hortus Conclusus

Madonna of Humility refers to artistic portrayals of a humble Virgin Mary depicting her sitting on the ground, or sitting upon a low cushion. Humility was a virtue extolled by Saint Francis of Assisi, and this style of image was a favorite of Franciscan piety. The word humility, from the Latin humus, meaning earth or ground (humus = humilitas.) One of the most popular visual representations of the Virgin toward the end of the Middle Ages is the image of Mary as the Virgin of Humility. An early image in this style is the fresco of Simone Martini painted v. 1335-40 above the door under the west porch of the Cathedral of Avignon. The fresco shows the Virgin holding the child Jesus in her arms, sitting on the ground. This theme emerges at a period in the history of Christianity, when negative religious connotations of the earth faded replaced by the concept of nature as ​​a creative force.

Attributed to Master of Flémalle or Robert Campin (1375-1444) Virgin and Child with Saints in an Enclosed Garden. This is also in the form of a Madonna of Humility seated on the ground & to indicate her humility - She is sitting in a bed of wildflowers, a flowery Mead but with a formal, elegant background.

A Mead is a medieval garden designed to imitate a small meadow or sometimes a larger, natural meadow. A Flowery Mead is a medieval term for a lawn rich in wild flowers. A flowery mead is often one of the essential components of a medieval garden. The flowery mead is seldom depicted within a distinct, geometric, larger garden. & Albertus Magnus (c 1200-1280), a German Dominican friar & a Catholic bishop, was a great admirer of lawns & flowery meads "For the sight is in now way so pleasantly refreshed as by fine and close grass kept short." Most writers recommend digging out the original 'waste' plants, killing the seeds in the soil by flooding with boiling water, then laying out the lawn with curves laid in and pounded well. Another writer recommended mowing them twice a year; lawn mowing would have been done with scythes or primitive shears. The flowery mead is one of the essential components of a medieval garden.

Attributed to Master of Flémalle or Robert Campin (1375-1444) Virgin and Child.  In the artist's imagination, she stands on a bed of wildflowers. The spot is sealed off from the remainder of the landscape by a architectural or textile image instead of the more traditional fence or hedge of the hortus conclusus.

Poet Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) in his Decameron in 1348 wrote "in the midst of the garden a lawn of very fine grass, so green it seemed nearly black, colored with perhaps a thousand kind of flowers……shut in with very green citrus & orange trees bearing, at the same time, both ripe fruit & young fruit & flowers so that they pleased the sense of smell as well as charmed the eyes with shade."

Attributed to Piero di Cosimo (Italian artist, 1462-1521) Adoration of the Child, c. 1490-1500. The Madonna & Child are placed in a small flowery mead among rocks.

Illustrated manuscripts and early depictions of Biblical gardens give us a glimpse of gardens familiar & imagined during those periods. Many images of medieval gardens are allegorical or metaphorical, rather than realistic representations of specific medieval gardens. The Virgin Mary begins to appear in both contrived, formal gardens & in more natural cultural landscape images in the 1300s. 

Madonna of Humility by Domenico di Bartolo, 1433.

In The Gardener's Labyrinth of 1577, the early English gardening book, Thomas Hill (b 1528) declared, "The most commendable inclosure for every Garden plot, is a quick-set hedge, made with brambles & white thorne..."

Gentile da Fabriano original name Niccolo Di Giovanni Di Massio (Italian artist, c 1370-1427) Virgin and Child with Sts Nicholas & Catherine. Here is the early Madonna in a flowery mead of wildflowers with a more formal backdrop. Angels are blooms on the trees.

Alessio Baldovinetti (1425-1499) Mother and Child in an enclosed garden which is a flowery mead surrounded by Saints 

Biblical Gardens - The Annunciation in Gardens - Illuminated Manuscripts

Illustrated manuscripts and early depictions of landscapes in portrayals of Biblical gardens give us a glimpse of gardens familiar & imagined during the periods the images were created.

The Annunciation in a Garden, Book of Hours (Bodmer Hours), ca. 1400–1410 Michelino da Besozzo (Italian, act. 1388–1450)

Renaissance (about 1400–1600) manuscript artists depicted gardens in a variety of texts, and their illustrations attest to the Renaissance spirit for the careful study of the natural world. In a society then dominated by the church, gardens within the miniature & in the margins surrounding were also integral to a Christian visual tradition.

Psalter Annunciation in Garden, 1180. (National Library of theNetherlands) The Annunciation ca 1450, Book of Hours

 The Annunciation in a Garden from the Book of Hours,  Flanders c.1460

The Annunciation to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel, with Anne Boleyn's note in the lower margin (London, British Library, MS King's 9, f. 66v).

The Annunciation in a Garden, about 1469

Biblical Gardens - The Old Testament Outdoors - Illuminated Manuscripts

Illustrated manuscripts and early depictions of landscapes in portrayals of Biblical gardens give us a glimpse of gardens familiar & imagined during the periods the images were created. Gardens are often mentioned in the Bible. In the language of the Hebrews, every place where plants & trees were cultivated with greater care than in the open field, was called a garden. Fruit & shade trees, with aromatic shrubs, sometimes constituted the garden; though roses, lilies, & certain gardens were used only for flowers & table vegetables, Genesis 2:8-10 15:1-21 1 Kings 21:2 Ecclesiastes 2:5,6.

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  Creation

This collection of illuminations for Old Testament Bible stories are from St. Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, VadSlg Ms. 343c.  History Bible from the workshop of Diebold Lauber, Volume 1: Old Testament.  Mid 15C

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  Noah and the Arc

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c Tower of Babel

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c Carrying Moses to the river

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c Rebecca at the Well

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  Moses and the Burning Bush

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c Moses receives the Tablets and Law

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  Moses receives the Law from God

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  Battle of Jericho

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c David and Goliath

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c c 178R David and Bethsabe in bed

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  Daniel in the Lion's Den

History Bible, Diebold Lauber, Vol 1 Old Testament  St Gallen, Canton Library, Vadianische collection, Vad Slg Ms. 343c  261v Judith has head of Holofernes in sack.