Note 63 — Chapter IV · COMACINE ORNAMENTATION IN THE LOMBARD ERA

A very pretty later instance of this myth is in the fresco of the Spanish chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, where the Dominican monks are figured as the "dogs of the Lord" (domini canes—mediæval pun), fighting and overwhelming the heretical paterini whom the monks literally fought with in the streets of Florence. The dog is always used as emblem of fidelity—the hare treated alone is generally used as an emblem of unchastity; when in the chase, as unfaithfulness.