Palatino 766 pipes, pools, cliffs, streams... (by Taccola)

[Koen G]

We seem to have some consensus that something very adjacent to Taccola must have been a source of the VM. Either the Taccola autograph, or an early copy of it (for the emperor?) or one of Taccola's sources.

The sun-star remains an important point of reference, in my opinion. If Taccola was the one to come up with this thing, then he is the staring point.

The consequence for how we see the VM artist would be this: they are untrained, and rely on examples to produce their art. Once they have learned a technique or manner of representation, they use it over and over (think of the common nymph poses). Hence, it might be that the VM artist learned from Taccola how to draw shores and cliffs, how to draw water basins and water coming out of pipes... But not necessarily other things. 

It is also clear that the VM artist had other visual sources, like that of the Zodiac. Their way of drawing animals and human figures is based on a more "German" environment. 

To put it differently, I think we're seeing this patchwork of influences because the VM artist was insecure in their skills (rightfully so :)) and "patched" together their drawing vocabulary from a number of sources.