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Flowers became an inseparable part of the arts of the mankind starting from the time of its "golden childhood" - the Classical Antiquity. Flower festivals were held in Ancient Rome in honour of the goddess Flora, when women used to compete in running and wrestling accompanied by the sounds of trumpets and kettledrums. The winners were strewn with flowers and awarded with wreaths. Rose was a sacred flower of Venus, being her attribute in the Renaissance and later. In the Renaissance rose was associated with Venus because of the beauty and odour of this flower, while the scratches of the rose thorns were compared with the wounds of love. In Christian symbolism rose also obtained special importance: red rose symbolizes the blood of a martyr, while white rose is a symbol of purity of the Virgin who was otherwise called a "rose without thorns".
Lily in Christian art also symbolizes purity of the Virgin. It was a lily that Archangel Gabriel gives to the Virgin Mary in the scene of the Annunciation. Numerous flowers fill in the background of mille-fleurs tapestries commemorating the festival of Corpus Christi when European towns were buried in flowers.
In 17th-century still lifes flowers played the main role reminding of the perishable nature of the world and the brevity of delight that is as transitory as the life of a flower.
In Europe in the gallant 18th century flowers were used as decorative elements of life. They were found everywhere - in the decor of interiors, painted panels, costumes and accessories. Taking delight in contemplating flowers was a source of refined pleasure in the Eastern countries. Ceramics, fabrics and works of calligraphic art were decorated there with flowers.
Miscellaneous forms and colours of flowers could not fail attracting artists in the 19th and 20th centuries. Flowers became an inexhaustible source for creative experiments.
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 Flowers Shaykh Larger view |
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 Watch with Chatelaine Pierre Le Roy Larger view |
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