(18-08-2016, 11:18 AM)MarcoP wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I find all this fun but pointless: all these details are in the range that could be easily mixed and matched by the illustrator.
Well, the point is that in order to mix and match the details, the illustrator must have been aware of these details to begin with, and it's not immediately clear that any single medieval illustrator would have been.
Thanks for the additional images. I'm aware that there are quite a few images of lions with tongues sticking out, but I think the sharp tongue is specific enough that it should be accounted for, and so far it looks like there is only one known parallel - from 12th century France.
As far as the three-pronged tail, that's interesting, but I still think the Cod Sang 402 is a much better match in terms of the shape (and actually if it weren't for the specific match in terms of the shape, I would not see much need to account for it as an influence at all, since the tail still looks mostly like the tree from the mosaic).
Honestly, looking at this again... there really is probably no need to assume that Cod Sang 402 influenced the VMS image at all. We can account for pretty much everything with the mosaic and the MS Walters 734. The tree could have just been made smaller, and coincidentally it happened to resemble the tail from Cod Sang 402 in its basic outline (but not "texture" or overall appearance). Although like I said, it doesn't cause a problem to account for it if we want to.
Either way, it's still interesting that even in (most if not all of) its European aspects, the VMS Leo points not toward 15th century Germany, but toward 12th century France.