Artistic ability of the VMs illustrator

[Diane]

Sorry, I should also have added illustrations.  I don't mean to suggest you don't find images of long graceful hands in other manuscripts, Persian and earlier medieval European ones come to mind, but overall, these are the ones I think suit the style of the entire section and the style of some 'pictorial annotations' in the botanical folios too.


Of the western images of elephants, this is one from St.Denys is a particular favourite of mine - an elephant was sent to Charlemagne in Aachen, though no-one seemed to know how to look after it and it was sent to St.Denys.

This is the image of the statue - though I added a handle and umbrella when I made it into a postcard, for fun.