The Rosettes Page - March 2024

[Koen G]

This also applies to monumental art, with the decans at Palazzo Schifanoia being a famous example: the meaning of the frescoes could only be recovered in 1912, when You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. matched the images with those of an illustrated text.

That's a nice example!

It also shows that it could be possible to come to a broadly shared understanding of previously obscure imagery. As with the text, my prediction is that when someone puts forward an adequate solution, we will know that it is good. Currently, we are not at such a point with any part of VM text or imagery. For the interpretation of the images, this could mean one of the following:

1) They have no meaning, so we will never find the meaning. It isn't there.
2) They did have a meaning to the maker, but any texts, documents or other images that could give us sufficient proof are now lost (or have never existed in the first place). The result for us is the same as in scenario (1).
3) The meaning can be found, but we have not found it yet. It is so complex that an additional source is needed, be it visual or textual. The Warburg story Marco describes above is an example.
4) Someone / various people have already come up with a decent solution, but they did not produce sufficient proof yet, or their argumentation is lacking. As always, the burden of proof is on the person proposing the theory.

I firmly believe that the following is not a possible scenario: 

5) "Someone already proposed a complete solution with excellent proof and argumentation, but people choose to ignore them in favor of their own theories."

No, it does not work that way. If your proposed solution is (1) correct and (2) you provide sufficient proof and (3) you communicate it well, people will be convinced. But so far, nobody has offered a complete solution for the rosettes page and provided adequate evidence.