f82r top: hanging capital?

[-JKP-]

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In another thread, which I can't seem to locate anymore (did it disappear during the Coventry incident?), Koen Gh and I had discussed the plant on f11r. As you can see, the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. plant seems to show a similar structure, with two arched branches meeting above a suspended leaf. There too, the hanging capital could have been an inspiration for the odd branch configuration depicted.


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There are plants that grow like this. They send out a runner, which forms a leaf, then another runner, another leaf, every two leaves or so, one of them will touch a piece of ground friendly enough in terms of moisture, nutrients, etc., for the leaf to take root and you get this stepcase propagation away from the original plant with all the plants still joined by the stringy runner. Many ground covers grow this way.

But... the VMS being what it is, it wouldn't surprise me if the archway style of the connection were architecturally inspired. Whoever drew the illustrations does seem to have an eye for visual similarity in dissimilar-seeming structures.

The container-like "towers" in the central rosette give one the same impression. They are similar to the small-plant section containers but they are almost like the mini-towers one sees on some buildings (especially those in western Russia) and ambiguous enough that one can't quite tell which one was intended.


I suppose the distinction between plants and architecture wasn't as strong in the middle ages as it is now. We don't embellish things the way we used to and almost nothing on buildings is handcrafted any more. In those days, acanthus leaves, vines, flowers, animals, and every other form of natural pattern was routinely sculpted into buildings and furniture.