The Arma Christi [General discussion]

[-JKP-]

Thanks, arca! Those are quite interesting.


Looking through Add MS 88929, I found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. quite revealing. I was suspecting those huge flowers with wide open tops referred to events in the sky. I thought You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. meant the eclipse, but this looks better, it's the wound held by angels in a cloudy frame. Ascension?

I read that to enhance the physicality of the Wound on parchment, they would sometimes make an actual hole. This may be what happened in the VM.

I think this might be a Bingo, Koen.

It has all the major elements...

• rays,
  
• a mandorla shape (which is not a shape typical to flowers),
  
• concentric layers/rows of nebuly-like shapes in shades of blue (not a scalloped cloudband or the double-infurled style, but cloudbands DID vary and this is within the general form that was sometimes used, even if slightly on the flowery side).
  

And what you mentioned about the hole, I can corroborate from another angle...

• The hole is in a place that these mandorla often had worn spots or holes because people would kiss them in the same manner as kissing the center of a cross (this is still done in certain orthodox churches). So it wouldn't surprise me if they became so accustomed to the idea of a hole there (and the analogy to the wound) that they would deliberately use or make a hole.
  

.
This indicates a significant level of planning. But the whole VMS strikes me that way anyway—careful, patient (except for painter #2, the sloppy painter). It's part of the reason I blogged about the traditional quilts from east India. Most people would probably wonder what that could possibly have to do with the VMS, but it wasn't just the patterns that were remarkably similar (the textural ones), but also the way things are put together, and the time and effort it takes to plan and execute them reminded me of certain aspects of the VMS.