The Arma Christi [General discussion]

[Koen G]

I'm developing some thoughts about the Viola on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , which is one of our clearest examples of a real plant (no argument there). 

There are five flowers, one in the middle on top, two to its side and two at the bottom. All are blue, with the ones on the right having clear yellow parts as well.

   

The bottom two flowers appear to be turned away from us, although their construction differs. The one on the left has the stalk connected to the centre, while the one on the right has a dot in that place.

The flower top right looks different. It's much more outstretched, and the white part is emphasized and enlarged (I know this is similar to nature in some flowers, but I am just comparing these five flowers among each other). It is a little bit anthropomorphic, more so than the other flowers, and in the central blue part there are rays. Both of these features are found in nature, so they might be of little importance in support of any symbolic meaning. Here I quickly tried to indicate what I'm talking about, but some of the lines under the blue are hard to determine. Your results may vary.

   

Now many of you are well versed in medieval iconography, and given the themes I've been discussing of late and the way I describe these flowers and their arrangement, you may know what I'm getting at. There is an extremely (and I don't use this word lightly here) common scene with three figures up high and two (or more, but often two) down below. The lower one dressed in blue is always on the left, or rather at His right hand.

So if this is that scene, then there may also be something important, something that's been eluding me so far. The Titulus Crucis.
And we would expect it in the central, top flower. Here:

   

Those marks are not the same as those in the right flower.