[split] f35v parallels "oak and ivy"

[-JKP-]

I looked up the history of the helical twining (in association with medical themes) a few years ago, but I honestly can't remember what I discovered. I think I remember it mostly being a simple spiral twine in the early days, and the helical version was introduced later. But I could be completely wrong.


I have seen helical twining in many illustrations of grape vines, but it's difficult to say whether the VMS vine might be grapes when the clusters are drawn more like the berries on non-edible vines like bryony and Hedera. Plus the leaves are missing (they appear to be deliberately missing) which reminds me of bryony (which loses its leaves in the winter, but retains the berries). Berries are almost never retained on grape vines because critters eat them if people don't (in fact, many animals will go for them a day or two before they are completely ripe and ready to harvest). So are the leaves missing to express something about the plant? Or to hide something about the plant... or because they are not relevant to what the picture is saying?


Koen, it's interesting that you introduced the flagellation pole. It's not something I've explored and it didn't even cross my mind that the helical ropes might be a parallel for helical vines. It's a very intriguing idea. It's makes me wonder how many other helical motifs I've missed in medieval art because I was perhaps too focused on plants.