The Voynich Ninja

I think there are at least two painters who worked on the VMS. A sloppy painter and a more careful painter who respected lines a bit more and mixed colors a bit more often.

So, I was wondering, was the painter (or painters) a decision-maker or simply someone who followed instructions?

I have a feeling at least one of the painters (maybe the careful painter) was a decision-maker, not just a production-line worker.

VViews pointed out that a line had been added in the Pisces fish figure in paint (not in the drawing). In most areas, the line connecting the two fish mouths was traditional.


Here's another example. The illustrator did not draw a star for this particular nymph on the Gemini folio. There isn't even a left arm to hold a star. But the painter added one anyway (along with a line):

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In those cases it looks more like the painter changed an intentional feature of the drawings to better match his expectations. So it's hard to say. Was this some guy messing up the other artist's images by wrongly assuming errors? Or maybe even the artist himself correcting his own work in the painting stage?

The presence of painting instructions seems to suggest that at least one painter was following orders. Although even here, these might have been "notes to self", I guess, though that seems less likely. There's also the fact that most of the visible color annotations have either been wrongly coloured or ignored.

I am uncertain about the question whether there were several painters or not. Since there were probably several scribes, one could assume that there were several painters too. Only one painter would have been a limiting factor in the time needed for the whole manuscript. I think this is rather unlikely.

I'm pretty confident that there are at least two painters in the big-plants section.

One is very hasty and sloppy and rarely mixes subtle shades of green. The other is much more careful about smoothing the paint, respecting edges and creating shades of green. But I am not certain if there are more than two, I haven't had time to look closely at the paint on the other folios.

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Instructions? Was the Vms built from instructions?

If they were written, at that level of detail, we might have had another book. Or is the author looking over the painter's shoulder. "Okay, now put a six-pointed, yellow star in that space there, and run a thin yellow line to the nymph."

IMO, whoever added the yellow star and string was 'with the program.' It may not be entirely clear to us as to what 'the program' is. For simplicity's sake, it might be catasterism, as represented by the nymph's proximal connection to string and star. The painter comes along, already *knows* 'the program', sees an "apparent omission", and fills in the blank.