Plant Symbolism
The plant in front of John the Baptist has aspects of both hyssop and cornflower, yet is most likely a hyssop because it grows from a wall. Cornflower is an attribute of Christ and symbolizes Heaven while hyssop symbolizes both the humility of Christ and baptism. There is a citron tree in the background, which represents the Cedar of Lebanon. Michelangelo uses the hyssop and tree as a visual representation of a quote by Rabanus Maurus, "From the Cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop which grows on a stony wall we have an explanation of the Divinity which Christ has in his Father and of the humanity that he derives from the Virgin Mary." The clover in the foreground represents the Trinity and salvation. The anemone plant represents the Trinity and the Passion of Christ.
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Famous quotes containing the words plant and/or symbolism:
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We use you, and do not cast you aside—we plant you permanently within us,
We fathom you not—we love you—there is perfection in you also,
You furnish your parts, toward eternity,
Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“...I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me when I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor—they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.”
—Albion Fellows Bacon (1865–1933)