08-07-2026, 02:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-07-2026, 02:13 PM by Jorge_Stolfi.)
(07-07-2026, 07:18 PM)eggyk wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.But if we want facing direction to be consistent, I vote for not counting it. It seems silly to me that these should score the same, considering artists tend to swap between the two directions frequently
The artists probably never saw the facing direction by itself as symbolically significant. If there were other things in the drawing, they would probably draw each human figure facing towards the most important element. Like, all facing towards Jesus, or the King, or the main players in the event that is being illustrated.
But if the artist was copying a human figure from another manuscript, and that would be the only thing in his drawing (like the VMS Virgo), the artist must have copied it in the same orientation as in the original. Flipping the drawing while copying would make the task harder and more prone to errors.
Therefore, if the goal is to identify possible sources of "inspiration" for the Zodiac drawings, I think that the left-right orientation is a relevant detail.
All the best, --stolfi