VMs f75r - Nymph Holding Spurtle

[Jorge_Stolfi]

That’s fine, it’s one of the worst things about the VMS that the drawings are sometimes difficult to identify just as real things, let alone symbols. I base my opinion upon the other rainbows in this section, however, which are drawn the same way. I guess it could be argued that none of them are rainbows either?  It would be nice if the colourist had painted more than one or two colours though.

It cannot be stressed enough that, almost certainly, the colors in the VMS are not original.  They were applied centuries after the manuscript was scribed, by someone who had no understanding of the text or the figures -- even less than we do, did not care about accuracy, and had only 3-4 color paints in his/her/its palette, not including white, black, red, or yellow.  Thus, when trying to interpret the figures, one must ignore the colors and try to imagine what the page would have looked like without them. 

And one must also ignore later additions to the outlines themselves. Like the crowns of f72v1 and the "barrels" on f73v...

One form of Tibetan art was a portrait of a deity complete with all details, from horse to weapons and rings and earrings, minus the deity itself.   As a meditation exercise, Tibetan monks were supposed to stare at the painting until they could "see" the deity filling in the void.  Interpreting VMS images is like that exercise, but in reverse... 

All the best, --jorge