Is there any hint at all in the Tubinger image that there might be blood involved?
This is why structure is important. More important than visual appearance. Illustrations don't need to look alike in order to represent the same thing. This diversity, this potential for disguise is being exploited extensively in the VMs. In order to better understand the content and the intent, there needs to be an adequate familiarity with the traditions, beliefs, and myths that are relevant to the investigation.
One cannot consider the identification of Melusine, if one does not know the myth of Melusine.
One cannot consider the significance of the Melusine myth, if one does not know the ancestral lore of the Valois dukes.
The artist, however, has not chosen to be clear and plainly obvious. The artist has chosen the diversity of expression to create ambiguity - ambiguity that cannot fully stand on its own, but also cannot be wholly denied.
Clearly, however, this is not good enough. Everything in the VMs has plenty of ambiguity. The requirement then is to determine where these ambiguous possibilities share common factors. If they don't, they don't. But, when they do, they produce a more viable interpretation, one that reinforces all of the contributing elements, not one that is more ambiguous.
This is why structure is important. More important than visual appearance. Illustrations don't need to look alike in order to represent the same thing. This diversity, this potential for disguise is being exploited extensively in the VMs. In order to better understand the content and the intent, there needs to be an adequate familiarity with the traditions, beliefs, and myths that are relevant to the investigation.
One cannot consider the identification of Melusine, if one does not know the myth of Melusine.
One cannot consider the significance of the Melusine myth, if one does not know the ancestral lore of the Valois dukes.
The artist, however, has not chosen to be clear and plainly obvious. The artist has chosen the diversity of expression to create ambiguity - ambiguity that cannot fully stand on its own, but also cannot be wholly denied.
Clearly, however, this is not good enough. Everything in the VMs has plenty of ambiguity. The requirement then is to determine where these ambiguous possibilities share common factors. If they don't, they don't. But, when they do, they produce a more viable interpretation, one that reinforces all of the contributing elements, not one that is more ambiguous.