(23-09-2016, 04:34 AM)R. Sale wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Your argument seems to be that there can not be representations of popes, because there would not be representations of naked popes. And therefore it appears that you believe that all the nymphs in the VMs are nude.I'm well aware that some of the figures, at least in their current form, are clothed. That would be a weird thing to deny.
But I do think that if the crown is supposed to be a papal one, or one referring to a specific medieval royal, it would be weird to have that person represented by a naked woman.
The crowns I'm talking about here are all worn by naked women. Cleopatra was often shown as a naked woman. Popes weren't.
In fact, I believe that having a naked woman wear a papal crown would have been utterly blasphemous. Same like the naked woman with the cross.
I'll just keep adding on evidence. How much is needed?
Today's features is once again from the Greco-Roman period in Egypt, one of the famous Fayum funerary portraits. These show people in contemporary clothing. Sometimes the women have their breasts bared, sometimes they don't, but nudity is not a problem.
The example below is not as photorealistic as some of the others, yet attention is given to her clothing, including the pattern on her diadem. Or whatever is the best name to call her head band. We see a number of vertical stripes and dots. One of the several relevant Voynich nymphs is inset.
Edit: in my previous post I explained the third crown in a row as a Ptolemaic royal symbol and I missed the opportunity to make a hat-trick joke
