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Matthias Withoos is best known for paintings that depict the plants and animals of the forest floor. In this work, cultivated plants like roses and lilies are combined with weeds and brambles and displayed against the backdrop of a distant landscape. The dense undergrowth shelters a lizard, a mouse, and a hedgehog.
The artist's selection of certain plants conveys an explicit religious message. The pink roses and white lilies symbolize the purity of the Virgin, while the thistles, blackberries, and other spiny plants refer to Christ's crown of thorns. A single stalk of wheat alludes to the bread of the Mass.
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