Sam G > 06-11-2016, 07:06 PM
(04-11-2016, 03:46 PM)Diane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Koen, Sam,
The Voynich botanical palette (in fact the entire palette) avoids anything in the range pink-to-purple-to-black. As a rule a flower naturally more pink will be coloured red and anything towards the darker purple-to-black will be coloured blue. In some cases, where a flower or part of a plant is naturally coloured purple-to-black, that part may well be just omitted. This is a custom seen in earlier Egypt - from which the western herbal tradition arose (believe it or not). An example is Dracunculus vulgaris where the sheath is omitted in the 'botanical chamber' of Karnak and in medieval herbals, too. It is also omitted in the Voynich image, but unlike the European herbals, that 'tabu' or restriction is observed throughout the Vms. Another case of the purple sheath being omitted is in the 'banana plants group' image. (f.13r). I have also noted a similar habit in earlier India (c.1st-2ndC AD) but that might be incidental.
Quote:I've noticed that a common reaction to information about the palette is an immediate suggestion that "maybe the painter had no pink/purple/black paint" but of course anyone could mix a little red pigment to white, or add blue to red or mix up green, blue and a bit of red to make a fair black.
Quote:The original makers evidently felt such colours were not to be used - not a latin European habit, but interestingly one which was preserved by the fifteenth century (or later) painters here.
Quote:In addition - and I know this will be 'take it or leave it' no matter how many folios I've explained in detail: none of the images I've looked at in detail has proven to be a portrait of just one plant.
They are more like a still life without the vase. Except - that there are limits to the groupings. Each group depicts plants that occur naturally in proximity to one another, and which have traditional uses which are equivalent (as with the Musaceae) or complementary (that is, the way that a plant yielding a fibre will be habitually complemented by one which was traditionally used to dye that particular fibre).
If a Silene is meant, the significance of both red and white petals, I'd expect, would mean that either the white-petalled or the blue-petalled would do.. whatever the thing was. Just as example.. S. succulenta was used to make soap. And since any fibre-plant and any dye-plant will need the cloth and/or the dyer well-washed at the end of the process, it might be reasonable to add an image of that Silene in the group.
Thinking of these as a kind of shopping list: "buy the fibre/cloth and don't forget to buy soap, too -either the white-flowered or the red-flowered kind"is the general idea.
Or you can look at Latin herbals - more restful, anyway.
-JKP- > 06-11-2016, 11:35 PM
Sam G > 08-11-2016, 09:41 PM
(06-11-2016, 11:35 PM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I've been calling them "spinner heads" but I like propeller.
Quote:It's my feeling that there are three basic kinds of drawing in the VMS plant sections (and perhaps some of the other sections)...
I suspect that the "propeller" flowers might be somewhat stylized.
- Naturalistic - many of the plant parts are very accurate and carefully (even if not expertly) drawn.
- Symbolic - quite a number of parts appear to be mnemonic, or possibly metaphoric or allegorical in a different sense from being memory aids.
- Stylistic - some elements strike me not as naturalistic or symbolic but as stylistic, in the aesthetic or design-tradition sense.
Quote:It's been my feeling, almost from the beginning of seeing the VMS, that the illustrator was exposed to a variety of influences and took ideas from here or there as they fit the intended purpose. It's difficult to know which ones are intentional or coincidental when it's a small detail, but I think it's possible the propeller flowers may be partly stylized.
For example, here is a decorative motif to mark the beginning of a new paragraph. It's not unusual, one can find floral decorations in a variety of regions and manuscripts, which means drawings like this could easily have been seen by the illustrator in any number of libraries, scriptoria, or universities during the 15th century. It's not an exact match, but maybe this kind of drawing (morphed with the actual shape of the flower) inspired some of the more stylized elements within the VMS.
-JKP- > 08-11-2016, 11:09 PM
(08-11-2016, 09:41 PM)Sam G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
Interesting... which manuscript is that from?
I agree that there seem to be different stylistic influences in the VMS botanical illustrations, but one thing about the propellers is that the alternation of color in the petals also resembles patterns that can be seen in leaves and other kinds of flowers in many of the illustrations, suggesting that it's part of a broader aesthetic or stylistic trend in the manuscript rather than an isolated element that has been grafted in. This kind of alternation of color seems to be very rare in European herbals.
Diane > 09-11-2016, 01:39 AM
Quote:It's my feeling that there are three basic kinds of drawing in the VMS plant sections (and perhaps some of the other sections)...I suspect that the "propeller" flowers might be somewhat stylized.
- Naturalistic - many of the plant parts are very accurate and carefully (even if not expertly) drawn.
- Symbolic - quite a number of parts appear to be mnemonic, or possibly metaphoric or allegorical in a different sense from being memory aids.
- Stylistic - some elements strike me not as naturalistic or symbolic but as stylistic, in the aesthetic or design-tradition sense.
Diane > 09-11-2016, 03:54 PM
Quote:Do you have links to where you've discussed these examples on your blog (or to anywhere else where I can read about them)?