[Blog Post] An Allegory of Salvation (Koen Gheuens & Cary Rapaport)

[RenegadeHealer]

Searcher, you raise a good point: in a time and place where ubiquitous and explicitly Christian artistic themes were the norm, a work that is Christian in theme but tries not to show it explicitly, demands an explanation.

I can’t recall who first said it (René Z, maybe?), but for every promising Voynich theory, there’s always at least one puzzle piece that just doesn’t fit. The oddness of a crypto-Christian book made in medieval Europe is Koen and Cary’s piece that doesn’t fit. This doesn’t damn their theory, but it certainly merits an explanation.

Koen, you mention in your blog post that the theme of Christ’s oval or spindle-shaped wound has been largely neglected by modern art historians. You speculate that its resemblance to the female genitalia makes it an awkward subject, that most scholars would rather avoid. (Correct me if I’m misinterpreting what you wrote.) It strikes me that depictions of Christ’s wound were very intentionally ionic, because this symbolized the rebirth of the world through Christ’s death. Does this accord with your research? In any case, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s anachronistic to equate all phallic and ionic symbols in historical artwork with erotica, and it’s a shame modern scholars have to tread so lightly on this topic to avoid offending people’s sensibilities.