Quote:According to the hagiographies, Barbara, the daughter of a rich pagan named Dioscorus, was carefully guarded by her father who kept her locked up in a tower in order to preserve her from the outside world. Having secretly become a Christian, she rejected an offer of marriage that she received through her father.
Before going on a journey, her father commanded that a private bath-house be erected for her use near her dwelling, and during his absence, Barbara had three windows put in it, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, instead of the two originally intended. When her father returned, she acknowledged herself to be a Christian; upon this he drew his sword to kill her, but her prayers created an opening in the tower wall and she was miraculously transported to a mountain gorge, where two shepherds watched their flocks. Dioscorus, in pursuit of his daughter, was rebuffed by the first shepherd, but the second betrayed her. For doing this, he was turned to stone and his flock was changed to locusts.
Dragged before the prefect of the province, Martinianus, who had her cruelly tortured, Barbara held true to her Christian faith. During the night, the dark prison was bathed in light and new miracles occurred. Every morning, her wounds were healed. Torches that were to be used to burn her went out as soon as they came near her. Finally, she was condemned to death by beheading. Her father himself carried out the death-sentence. However, as punishment, he was struck by lightning on the way home and his body was consumed by flame.

(16-08-2019, 04:11 PM)arca_libraria Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This is a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. where she holds a cannon ball

(16-08-2019, 04:11 PM)arca_libraria Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
I still think that the manuscript objects the VMS most closely resembles are the herbals/scientific miscellanies produced in medieval Europe even if there are also some non-European influences on the VMS as well.

This could be off-topic here, but I would love to know more of the non-European influences you spotted in the VMS!

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RE: Saint Barbara, baths, towers, and canons - pedestrian - 21-08-2019

Thank you arca_libraria for this Saint Barbara thread and to the posters above, you have jogged my memory.

Another Saint Barbara, this one a mid-15th Century polychromed wood reliquary bust of her, complete with tower:

   
(from the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, New York, p.186, 'Set in Stone: The Face in Mediaeval Sculpture', Charles T Little [ed], 2006)

Attributed to the workshop of Nikolaus Gerhaert von Leiden, one of four busts - St Agnes of Rome, St Catherine of Alexandria, St Margaret of Antioch, and St Barbara - originally carved for the altarpiece of the church of Saints Peter and Paul at Wissembourg, a few dozen kilometres north of Strasbourg. Thought to date from 1465-67. These sculpture's of Gerhaert's (or by his workshop) were a new departure from traditional canonical representations, showing a more naturalistic style with a real sense of animation in the faces.

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Isn't there something in the facial style that recalls some of the VM nymphs? Just look at MarcoP's example from f79v, above... [/font]

What's the relevance, apart from being yet another thing-that-looks-a-bit-like-something-else? Maybe nothing. But following the thoughts in the posts above, this is a Saint Barbara with an Alsatian origin and perhaps a stylistic connection to the VM illustrations too. Was the illustrator of the VM looking at these busts? The carbon 14 timeline would suggest maybe not. Were Gerhaert and the VM illustrator both looking at another, slightly earlier set of faces, inspired by them? Should one keep in mind Koen G's and Nick Pelling's (and others') Lauber workshop observations - another Alsatian reference point - and building up taxonomies of calendrical/Zodiac/clothing images?

And here's one of the other Wissembourg busts, St Margaret of Antioch, who has lost her paint but kept her little dragon - not unlike the little VM creature sometimes interpreted as a 'dragon'. Legend had it that one of her tribulations was combatting Satan who appeared in the guise of a dragon, hence the dragon. In her dying prayer St Margaret besought God to grant that pregnant women be allowed to call upon her aid in delivery.

There's no real reason to draw any conclusion from these busts, but in a similar vein to others' comments, perhaps they help to feed an underlying sense of a time, a place, a set of styles, influences, and common visual cues - part of the context in which the VM was produced.

   
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif](from the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, New York, [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]p.183, 'Set in Stone: The Face in Mediaeval Sculpture', Charles T Little [ed], 2006))[/font][/font]

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RE: Saint Barbara, baths, towers, and canons - davidjackson - 21-08-2019

I've been saying for years that 13th and 14th century imagery form a strong parallel with the voynich nymphs. 
Just last week I was looking at the original 14th century stained glass window in Gloucester cathedral and thinking it again. 
I've got some Spanish photos I've taken in collections somewhere on the forum that show other likeness. 
See also some 14th century Galician works that share the same style. I think the scribe was influenced by late 14th century Real life imagery that he saw all around him.

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RE: Saint Barbara, baths, towers, and canons - bi3mw - 21-08-2019

A not so clear representation of Saint Barbara. She holds her martyrdom tool, the sword with which she was beheaded by her father, in the left. So Saint Barbara is not shown armed (in the usual sense).


Michael Pacher-Workshop, Saint Barbara, arround 1480/1490,
54,5 x 41 cm (Belvedere, Vienna, Inv.-Nr. 4848)

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RE: Saint Barbara, baths, towers, and canons - -JKP- - 22-08-2019

It's interesting that she's often depicted as a red-head. There's one red-head in the VMS (in the bathing pool).

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