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Theme: fantasy & temptation
Some flowers stimulate the human imagination far more than others and in European civilisation it is the rose that takes the prize, featuring strongly in folk lore.
In ancient Greece, the rose was associated with Venus, the goddess of love.
The thicket that grew around Sleeping Beauty during her 100-year sleep, impenetrable to all except her hero, was a rose hedge.
In the story of Beauty and the Beast it was plucking the Beast's roses that led to Beauty's captivity, and love which broke the spell.
The Pre-Raphaelites rendered these age-old stories in paintings, but folk tales such as these had appeared in many guises throughout history. The medieval tale Romance of the Rose, first compiled in French and translated by Chaucer, was often illustrated in manuscripts. In this allegory, the lover has to traverse a secret garden fraught with danger and temptation to reach a rose signifying his lady's love.
Temptation of another kind arose from the phenomenon of tulipmania in 17th Century Holland. Tulip bulb prices soared, and the promise of great wealth from their sale caused more and more breeders to jump on the bandwagon - many of whom were ruined financially when the market fell. |
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