Celestial faces

[R. Sale]

It's an interesting combination of early dating and the 'fullness' of the sun and moon personifications. There are Sol and Luna depicted like they could almost be mistaken for Apollo and Diana. It's just a choice of semantics.

There's another factor involved in that the image is an illustration of the Crucifixion. Having 'secondary deities' tends toward problematic. Perhaps there was a trend, leading up to c. 1400, where celestial personifications became progressively more simplified and restricted to just generic faces. However, there are also various early representations of the Crucifixion where the sun and moon are not present, as well as a few examples where they are present, but not personified. So, there are multiple aspects to consider, but they don't all apply to the VMs. The VMs has celestial faces.

The particular aspect of the two VMs illustrations not seen in the various religious depictions of all the solar faces is the inclusion of a headband. Here is a solar depiction of Apollo with a headband - 11th Cent. from Bern. 

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