ABSTRACT
Leaves and flowers are such a natural form of decoration that it is easy to ignore their significance; but like the acanthus, which adorned Corinthian columns in classical times, and in the fifteenth century became the dominant leaf pattern in illuminated manuscripts, there is usually a good story attached. According to legend, the Greek architect Callimachus adopted this motif after he saw acanthus growing from under a gravestone, full of vigorous new life, and was doubly inspired by the beauty of its form and its resurrection symbolism. The realism of carved leaves was a thirteenth-century phenomenon which faded back into stylization all too soon, but meanwhile in illuminated manuscripts the impulse toward accurate representation was growing, especially in Italy.
