N. N. N. 26. ART SCREWS-FLOWERS in the most important representations of art history

 N. N. N. 26. ART SCREWS-FLOWERS in the most important representations of art history.

THE LILES and DECORATIVE PLANTS in the Greco-Roman age classic world (third episode).

The LILIUM, or lilium, belongs to the liliaceae family, is originally from Syria and Palestine, however West Asia, spread in the eastern Mediterranean by the Phoenicians.

It is among the most ancestral crops of ornamental flowers. Image present on Assyrian sculptures and Egyptian tombs, at these two empires the lily became the emblem of royal sovereignty and virginal innocence of the girls who married. In particular, in the most widespread iconographic representations, the refined lily flower is the white white one, gently fragrant in a penetrating way, erected on the high stem with elegant poise, with numerous religious and cultural meanings taken on many ancient cultures. However, the existing varieties are quite different in shape and color of petals.

The best known and widespread species is the lilium candidate, of Balkan origin but imported into southern Italy already at the time of the Romans.

According to legend, the white lily was born from a drop of milk that fell to the ground during Hera / Juno's breastfeeding in Hercules. Hercules illegitimate son of god Zeus and mortal Alkmene, to become immortal he had to drink divine milk. Zeus then decided that Hercules should be breastfeeded from the chest of his wife, the goddess Hera. While she was sleeping, she put the baby on her chest and, when she breastfeeded, some drops of milk ended up in the universe creating the Milky Way. Instead, the drops that fell into the ground turned into a white lily.

Its spread in the Mediterranean area was very rapid thanks to some laws, enacted by Emperor Augustus, which required the cultivation of all plants considered useful in order to reduce the costs of their import from eastern countries. Thanks to this ancient law, the lily became a semi-spontaneous plant even in the southern Italy area.

In classical antiquity between the Greeks and the Romans, he embodyed the great meaning of ′′ sublime love ′′ and ′′ procreation "; the priest placed on the bride's head the ritual wedding crown of lilies with inserted wheat ears, symbols of purity and purity abundance.

The lily was consecrated to Britomart - a Cretan goddess of fertility, nature and hunting - and the Minoan civilization elected it a privileged and recurring motif in floral art developed on the island from the th century BC to the th century BC. Representations of this flower, symbol of a high-ranking lifestyle, in fact, some Cretan frescoes dating back to around 1580 BC have been discovered in some Cretan frescoes dating back to the same Minoan period. The stylized lilies represented as emblem of power, together with the griffins, on the walls in the throne room of the Palazzo di Knosso, thus inaugurating its use in the heraldry lasting over the centuries.

In Akrotiri, on the island of Thera, today's Santorini, the ' Camera del lily ' used for a wedding ritual has been found: three walls are entirely frescoed with a rocky landscape where swallows rise above flowery red lilies.

In this case, the features and colors of two different floral varieties have been combined - one with erect white flowers, the other with reclining red flowers - probably as representative of early summer, the purity of youth in the transition to adulthood and worship by Ariadne, goddess of vegetation, protector of regrowth, prosperity, fertility and harvest.

Massimo Ruggero

President of International Action Art-Department Italy

President Club for UNESCO of Genoa metropolitan

Ambassador WHERE-Where I live abroad for Art, Culture and Science in Italy

Culture coordinator of MIRE world