04-08-2022, 10:06 AM
For me, these are two separate questions:
- What was the image based on?
- What does it mean?
For me, it makes little sense to make a plant "mean" a heraldic device, but it may be based on one. Most likely, the VM's "eagle" was not improvised by the artist. If we look at the other animals in the VM, the idea that they would have needed a model for drawing an eagle seems reasonable. Remember that this is the same MS that finds crayfish with legs on the tail okay, and makes bovine legs bend the wrong way. Especially the fact that those red parts at the wings were included is a strong indication that they were drawing off an example - it feels like a detailed part of (traditional) wing anatomy the VM would normally omit.
So my idea is that if we can first determine the most likely model, we can then maybe say something more about the meaning, whether it is most likely an eagle or an angelic being and so on. So far, our only decent model is a modern version of Novara's arms.
- What was the image based on?
- What does it mean?
For me, it makes little sense to make a plant "mean" a heraldic device, but it may be based on one. Most likely, the VM's "eagle" was not improvised by the artist. If we look at the other animals in the VM, the idea that they would have needed a model for drawing an eagle seems reasonable. Remember that this is the same MS that finds crayfish with legs on the tail okay, and makes bovine legs bend the wrong way. Especially the fact that those red parts at the wings were included is a strong indication that they were drawing off an example - it feels like a detailed part of (traditional) wing anatomy the VM would normally omit.
So my idea is that if we can first determine the most likely model, we can then maybe say something more about the meaning, whether it is most likely an eagle or an angelic being and so on. So far, our only decent model is a modern version of Novara's arms.