According to a late-Hellenic legend, the lily was born of the milk that Juno spilled on the ground while feeding baby Hercules.
The Romans named it ‘the rose of Juno’ and many passages in the Old Testament attribute qualities of fertility and spiritual transformation to this particular flower.
No wonder then that in Christian iconography it took on the meaning of chastity and purity - and the attribute of the virgin Mary.
In fact, it is rather rare to find an Annunciation scene which doesn’t feature a white lily somewhere. And if we are to believe the Golden Legend, lilies and roses also sprouted inside Mary’s vacated tomb.
The Coronation of the Virgin (lower half), 1502-1504 , Raphael, Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums, Rome.
Lilies stand for purity, innocence, fertility and the beginning of new life.
Poppies mean quite the opposite.
Initially associated with sleep (drug induced or natural), they took on the meaning of a sleep more eternal: death.
Poppies, because of their intense redness, were later absorbed into Christian doctrine to symbolise the Passion of Christ. Raphael’s ‘Madonna of the Meadow’ alludes to this unhappy ending of the story by placing some red poppies behind the peaceful scene of Madonna with Christ and John the baptist.
Madonna of the Meadow, 1506, Raphael, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
After the devastation of the first World War they became commemorative flowers for the fallen military, inspired by this famous poem by John McCrea:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Today, look for these two opposites.
Lilies and poppies. Symbols of life and death, of birth and sacrifice.
Dwell through online collections or visit your local museum. Notice how these two flowers are used to add extra layers to the stories told in paintings.
Capture your favourite examples, and share them on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #kramerseye.