There is a fundamental difference in structure and purpose. Standard T/O representations have Asia in the top half, and Europe and Africa in the bottom quarters. This representation is geographic. In contrast, INVERTED T/O representations have water in the bottom half, and land and air(?) in the top quarters. This representation is elemental.
The VMs conforms to the inverted T/O structure, but it is not a pictorial representation, and we cannot read the words.
The VMs cosmos has no planetary indicators. Aren't planets a necessary and definitive part of an Aristotelian cosmic structure? Their absence is one of the aspects that demonstrate the similarities in the comparison between the VMs, BNF Fr. 565, and Harley 334.
The specific nature of the cloud band doesn't matter. Pretty or ugly, as long as it is recognized as a cosmic boundary, it has performed its function. There are no stars attached to it. In a sense, as a cosmic boundary, it represents the limits of what is knowable.
Then there is the wheel with eight curved spokes. There is only one comparable historical source for this structure - Shirakatsi's Eight Phases of the Moon. We may never know how that structure made it into the VMs, but we know where it came from.
The VMs artist has taken two disparate astronomical structures and paired them together, to make a sort of Franken-cosmos. Call it deception or trickery or idiosyncratic sophistication. It is an intentionally constructed oxymoron. It is a revelation of what is required to play the VMs artist's game. Failure to recognize *both* of the parts is like a joke that is "over one's head" - as they say.
The VMs conforms to the inverted T/O structure, but it is not a pictorial representation, and we cannot read the words.
The VMs cosmos has no planetary indicators. Aren't planets a necessary and definitive part of an Aristotelian cosmic structure? Their absence is one of the aspects that demonstrate the similarities in the comparison between the VMs, BNF Fr. 565, and Harley 334.
The specific nature of the cloud band doesn't matter. Pretty or ugly, as long as it is recognized as a cosmic boundary, it has performed its function. There are no stars attached to it. In a sense, as a cosmic boundary, it represents the limits of what is knowable.
Then there is the wheel with eight curved spokes. There is only one comparable historical source for this structure - Shirakatsi's Eight Phases of the Moon. We may never know how that structure made it into the VMs, but we know where it came from.
The VMs artist has taken two disparate astronomical structures and paired them together, to make a sort of Franken-cosmos. Call it deception or trickery or idiosyncratic sophistication. It is an intentionally constructed oxymoron. It is a revelation of what is required to play the VMs artist's game. Failure to recognize *both* of the parts is like a joke that is "over one's head" - as they say.