Can scribal hands be correlated to imagery? Let's look at faces!

[Koen G]

It may not surprise you that I have also given this some thought before, and as usual it's a complex story. I wrote a long post here detailing my thoughts, but then deleted it because I'm not certain of anything.

First off I'll say that I agree with the sentiment that the just like the broad style of text and plants, that of the human figures is the same throughout the manuscript.  So we are looking for variation within that consistency. (I would not compare the celestial faces directly to nymph faces, since they have a different anatomy and scale.)

I don't want to get into the one-vs-many scribes or artists debate now. We are still collecting data.

When I was thinking about the faces before, I focused on two things: the eyes, and the lines that form the forehead, cheek and nose.

I would distinguish three core styles based on the linework:

1. Smooth style: the face is outlined in an almost continuous line. Nose line may be separated. Frequent in early Zodiac pages. 
   
   
2. Eye-dip style: the forehead line curves in towards the eye and continues into the cheek line. Forehead and cheek are two distinct arches. The nose is a separate line. Frequent in four-figure diagrams, late Zodiac (starting ca. Leo); also found in some Q13 pages.
   
3. Picasso style: the forehead line curves strongly into the nose line. The cheek is a separate line usually starting at the eye. This messes with the perspective, hence my name for the style. Frequent in the "central pool pages" of Q13.
   

Examples:

   

Based on this, one might construct the following sequence:

• Smooth style -> eye-dip style -> Picasso style
  
• Early Zodiac (changes around Leo) -> Late Zodiac -> Four figure diagrams + marginal figure of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -> original first folios of Q13 (transitional) -> original second group of Q13 + You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. figure.
  

What I find most fascinating is that the marginal figure of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. occurs on the same bifolio as f57v. It is badly faded but seems to match the style of lines and eyes. And the figure on the last page of the manuscript mostly matches the Picasso style of presumably late Q13. Therefore, I would argue that the two marginal human figures were made around the same time the main drawings on these pages were made.

Another potentially interesting avenue is to trace the evolution of eye-dip style into Picasso style through Q13, with the goal of reconstructing its original page order.