27-02-2017, 09:59 AM
I am still unsure about this one, here's why.
On the one hand, yes, it does look like what Koen Gh describes is a possibility, and many have noted the apparent presence of various touch-ups in the Voynich nymphs.
Yet based on ink color alone, especially when all we have to go on are scans, I don't think we can determine whether there might have been one or several retouchers.
On the other hand, I'd like to entertain a different hypothesis. To me, the black ink used in the diadems doesn't seem that different from the shade of some other elements on the same folio, such as the nearby nymph's hairline as well as some of the breasts and genital areas. Also as Koen Gh notes, these darker lines occur mainly in the later parts of the zodiac.
So, I wonder if it could be a matter of the ink that the artist used being either poorly mixed or having a tendency to separate, meaning that while the ink was homogenous when he began drawing the section, towards the end, he might get different concentrations of pigment depending on how he dipped his quill.
On the one hand, yes, it does look like what Koen Gh describes is a possibility, and many have noted the apparent presence of various touch-ups in the Voynich nymphs.
Yet based on ink color alone, especially when all we have to go on are scans, I don't think we can determine whether there might have been one or several retouchers.
On the other hand, I'd like to entertain a different hypothesis. To me, the black ink used in the diadems doesn't seem that different from the shade of some other elements on the same folio, such as the nearby nymph's hairline as well as some of the breasts and genital areas. Also as Koen Gh notes, these darker lines occur mainly in the later parts of the zodiac.
So, I wonder if it could be a matter of the ink that the artist used being either poorly mixed or having a tendency to separate, meaning that while the ink was homogenous when he began drawing the section, towards the end, he might get different concentrations of pigment depending on how he dipped his quill.