The Modern Forgery Hypothesis

[proto57]

The plump bodies of the nymphs, were not at all depicted in that way in early 1400s. Not even close.

Well, Justinius Alternative Veritus, interesting you say this, as I have had parallel thoughts on it, myself... although I am not sure if I've expressed them publicly. Maybe, I have a Big Mouth. But it is cool that you thought the same here.

In any case, then, what would be the influence, possibly from the late 19th to early 20th centuries? I had thought they looked most like the women in cartoon art of the era, such as the Katzenjammer Kids cartoons. But when you posted this I wondered about other possible sources again, and asked Google specifically about naked women depictions, "Is there any iconic cartoon art from the early 1900's or late 1800's, in Europe, which depicted drawn representations of nude women?"

OMG. Now, a huge warning on some of the links that Google returned... some are quite... raucous. I won't post those links here, lest some child happen by someone's open laptop and get curious... and in a related note, there is nothing new under the Sun, it was only in print and not polluting your computer and smart phone screens. But one can put my question to Google and come up with a similar answer. Here are some censored snippets:

"Yes, there is a highly iconic tradition of satirical cartoon art and caricature from Western Europe during the late 1800s and early 1900s (the Belle Époque and fin de siècle eras) that explicitly used drawn representations of nude women. Unlike standard classical or academic nude paintings of the time, cartoon art utilized the female nude for political allegory, anti-clerical rebellion, biting social critique, and dark avant-garde humor."

"1. L'Assiette au Beurre (The Butter Plate): This highly influential French weekly satirical magazine, published between 1901 and 1912, is famous for its avant-garde graphic styles and anarchist political leanings. The publication regularly targeted the hypocrisy of the bourgeois class, the military, and the Catholic Church. Artists for the magazine frequently drew stark, confrontational, or distorted female nudes to represent Liberty, Truth, or the victims of colonial and capitalist exploitation" (right up the Voynich's alley, I think).

"Key Artists: Illustrators like Albert Guillaume and Frédillo were widely celebrated for cartoon-style erotica and satirical illustrations depicting the private lives, voyeurism, and romantic antics of the Parisian elite."

But NSFW is the work of one Frédillo (or Fredillo), who "... was a French cartoonist and illustrator working in the late 19th Century. His work appeared in La Lanterne (1874-1876), L’Écho des jeunes and La Plume (after 1889). The ‘F’ by which he signed many of his works stood for Frédillo and not, as the history books have it, for one of the key subjects of his erotica (f****o, flogging and so one). This is his work from 1880 entitled Fantaisies Parisiennes."-

From one of the links, which I won't place here, but it would be easy to find... that is some wild stuff right there. But the point is, this Frédillo drew his women plump, and I would say, while artistically far better, certainly "of the type" we find in the Voynich.

TLDR: Yes I agree, the style of women does not fit the 15th century well at all, but among other possible sources of influence, does match many female figures common in the 19th and early 20th cartoon art, for humor, politics, and erotica.