22-04-2017, 12:17 AM
(21-04-2017, 11:10 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.JKP: this is one of the several parts of this image that are absolutely puzzling. I know ivy first hand, but it just doesn't use its stem to pierce things like that. Here it almost looks like an incision was made in the "pole" and the plant was pulled through it. I'm not sure if there's anything else like it in the VM. I can see how one can still make a case for this being ivy, but the depiction would be exceptional in many ways...
Also, the near-symmetry of the two vines seems to me an indication of either an underlying tradition or a symbolic meaning. I just finished a new blog post where I speculate a bit on this aspect, but I won't import this kind of stuff onto the forum since literally nobody would agree
I have only seen this "helical" shape on one other image and it's not as symmetric or as obvious as the VMS.
I wondered at first if the helical shape (rather than the more common spiral twining shape) was a reference to "Hedera helix" the name of the ivy, but I looked up the etymology of the word "helix" and found it wasn't in general use in the early centuries (plus the plant was known as Hedera nigra in the 14th and 15th centuries), so it doesn't seem likely the helix shape was intended as a mnemonic.