(15-03-2016, 08:13 AM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hmm, I never saw it as a flood scene, given the pond-like nature of the water. Also, I may have been mistaken in describing the creatures as reptilian because of their tails. Wouldn't this split tail suggest an aquatic nature instead?
If you look at medieval chronicles of the flood, many of them look like ponds or puddles. It was a convention in some areas to draw it that way (it also looks more like an ocean in others). And many have drawn-and-then painted-over animals in the water, some of which are upside-down or otherwise dead or drowned looking.
I'm not saying the VMS author's intent was to represent a biblical passage, but the style of the drawing follows medieval tradition for Noah stories.
You'll also notice rainbows on another page. Rainbows had two main purposes in similar manuscripts. Some were to represent the sun coming out after the flood, others were to represent the relationships between constellations. So... a biblical flood tradition was used by some illustrators to represent astrological (and astronomical) relationships.
(15-03-2016, 08:13 AM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hmm, I never saw it as a flood scene, given the pond-like nature of the water. Also, I may have been mistaken in describing the creatures as reptilian because of their tails. Wouldn't this split tail suggest an aquatic nature instead?
The one bottom right, except for the nose, could be interpreted as a lion rampant. The one above it, as a drowned mammal, like a fox, for example. Only the one on the left has a more definite reptilian look to it.
The thing about flood and creation stories is that some illustrators tried to make them naturalistic but I've noticed that others made them more fantastical, possibly because a few drawings were supposed to represent all animals (and this may have been a symbolic way of suggesting that).