06-11-2018, 02:56 PM
Hi Ruby
Thanks for the response - a very fair comment. After offering my work for a decade I grew tired of its being re-cycled without proper attribution. Protests and so on having no effect, the only option left was to close it down. Sorry.
I'd like to make a few general remarks about method. First is that one has to consider everything about a drawing; the practice of isolating a detail from the rest, and then hunting for 'like' bits from generally un-like manuscripts is (IMO) unfortunate and in the long run unproductive. But that's my opinion and others have theirs.
In my posts, I had cited the style of 'spice boxes' as early as 2011, and specifically some traditional forms long maintained by certain families of Jews who had for centuries held a monopoly over silverwork in the Yemen. The forms for those spice boxes may have come, with their exotic contents, into the possession of European Jews, from some of which the so-called German spice boxes developed. Their origin, in fact, is as ritual objects within the Jewish tradition. The fact of their being in silver is important, but that connects with the economic history and trade aspect of the study. The other important point is that we also find incense burners of that region which have comparable form. So too, by a separate line of development, the sort of containers used for scented liquids and other forms of container including nested offering-boxes - these last closely akin to some of those in the 'leaf and root' section. Now, with relation to the Vms, the common region for vessels of such a sort supports indications from all sections of the MS (bar a few late-stage additions) that we have them from an area connected to Europe by lines of east-west commerce and intercourse, but where they were well-known and in common use. Thus, their being set around the map's centre as 'towers' refers (IMO) to the idea of 'the lands of incense' while their presence in the 'leaf and root' section is intended more literally. This isn't an idea that sprang immediately to my imagination It is not a 'theory' but the conclusion of research into comparative iconography, historical studies, cultural studies and so forth.
I do not think it unexpected that we should find the occasional echo of some similar thing, here and there, in a later western work, but nor is is unexpected that these occur in contexts and in the midst of other forms and style of drawing quite incompatible with the Vms'.
Marco's example of fanciful architecture is most interesting because it suggests that the maker of that image drew deliberately on a near-eastern, and perhaps specifically Jewish, object as his model. The time is right, and so too is the work's belonging to England of that time. Very nice find.
Thanks for the response - a very fair comment. After offering my work for a decade I grew tired of its being re-cycled without proper attribution. Protests and so on having no effect, the only option left was to close it down. Sorry.
I'd like to make a few general remarks about method. First is that one has to consider everything about a drawing; the practice of isolating a detail from the rest, and then hunting for 'like' bits from generally un-like manuscripts is (IMO) unfortunate and in the long run unproductive. But that's my opinion and others have theirs.
In my posts, I had cited the style of 'spice boxes' as early as 2011, and specifically some traditional forms long maintained by certain families of Jews who had for centuries held a monopoly over silverwork in the Yemen. The forms for those spice boxes may have come, with their exotic contents, into the possession of European Jews, from some of which the so-called German spice boxes developed. Their origin, in fact, is as ritual objects within the Jewish tradition. The fact of their being in silver is important, but that connects with the economic history and trade aspect of the study. The other important point is that we also find incense burners of that region which have comparable form. So too, by a separate line of development, the sort of containers used for scented liquids and other forms of container including nested offering-boxes - these last closely akin to some of those in the 'leaf and root' section. Now, with relation to the Vms, the common region for vessels of such a sort supports indications from all sections of the MS (bar a few late-stage additions) that we have them from an area connected to Europe by lines of east-west commerce and intercourse, but where they were well-known and in common use. Thus, their being set around the map's centre as 'towers' refers (IMO) to the idea of 'the lands of incense' while their presence in the 'leaf and root' section is intended more literally. This isn't an idea that sprang immediately to my imagination It is not a 'theory' but the conclusion of research into comparative iconography, historical studies, cultural studies and so forth.
I do not think it unexpected that we should find the occasional echo of some similar thing, here and there, in a later western work, but nor is is unexpected that these occur in contexts and in the midst of other forms and style of drawing quite incompatible with the Vms'.
Marco's example of fanciful architecture is most interesting because it suggests that the maker of that image drew deliberately on a near-eastern, and perhaps specifically Jewish, object as his model. The time is right, and so too is the work's belonging to England of that time. Very nice find.