Sometimes we see flowers placed in extravagant vases. Here, Levitan has casually placed May-blooming white lilacs and blue forget-me-nots in a clay vase with a matte glaze. He didn't buy these stems in the florist but would have found them walking along the road or in a field nearby. They are modest, unpretentious flowers in an unpretentious vase.
There's an old German legend that says, God had finished naming all the plants and flowers when a tiny un-named one called out: "Forget-me-not, O God." And God replied, "So that shall be your name."
And while Catholics have largely negative attitudes towards the Free Masons, they were the ones who in 1926, wore forget-me-nots on their lapels as a symbol for the government not to forget the poor and the desperate. We could do with some of that today.
Any parochial school Catholic who grew up in the 1940's, 50's or 60's will remember the May-Mary shrines we decorated with lilacs brought to school wrapped in aluminum foil. But for all their delicacy and heady fragrance, bizarre as it may seem, in folklore it was considered unlucky to bring lilacs, especially of the white variety, into the home. And they must never be taken to a hospital.
Fortunate for us, Levitan didn't know about any of that or simply didn't care. I suspect he was too genuinely spiritual a man to allow superstitions to distract him. He has simply found these flowers and put them together in their simplicity. Let us enjoy them.
Fortunate for us, Levitan didn't know about any of that or simply didn't care. I suspect he was too genuinely spiritual a man to allow superstitions to distract him. He has simply found these flowers and put them together in their simplicity. Let us enjoy them.
