Interesting point - do we see the leg like that because the scribe was determined to show that this was a woven basket and you could see through the weave? Or is he trying to show that the leg is inside the basket?

Because most baskets are far more tightly woven that that. You wouldn't see a wide spaced weave like that on an animal basket, the food would fall through. The spacing between the weave, in fact, wouldn't belong to a woven basket but more of a container made out of branches.
In fact, I would say that a woven basket with that wide a weave would have no stability or function at all!
I would say that the position of the leg is the most important clue as to the function of the basket, but I haven't a clue what it could be at the moment.

Its function is to trap naughty bulls.

Hi David,

If you read my off-topped post above, you would probably reconsider your view as to the position of the leg, because seemingly it is just part of the general "template" according to which all Voynich Zodiac mammals are depicted.

HI Anton,
I wondered about that afterwards - do you have more information on this?

Still the fact remains that there has been some messing around with the leg and the basket. The pattern is interrupted and apparently drawn separately over the leg.

Note also that there is some yellow paint, suggesting to me that the basket was first much smaller, but perhaps extended to make it stand on te floor. I'll see if I can show what I mean in photoshop.

*fastforward*

   

Anton's post above got me thinking too.
It appears that almost all of the four-legged animals in the Voynich are depicted in the same pose, even outside of the zodiac section: you can observe it on 79v's yellow creature as well as on the animal in the 116v marginalia.
Interestingly, the preferred animal pose echoes Koen Gh's remark about nymph legs: the legs closest to the viewer are generally straight and the farther one is slightly bent.
Exceptions:
-the "armadillo" and the red creature on 79v, which share a curled-up pose
-the green animal and the blue animal on 79v, which again share the same pose: in this pose the front leg closest to the viewer is raised.
As with the nymphs, it appears the artist here is using only a very limited set of poses for the animals. Whether this is a meaningful choice, a reflection of limited skill, or the product of copying another manuscript which would be a source for these images, remains to be determined.

Well spotted, VV! The pond creatures appear somewhat messy, but it's clear in the Zodiac mammals (counting scorpio too).
The funny thing is that that are made to obey the rule with both pairs of legs

Now, to make matters even weirder. In a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. I formulated a similar rule for arms: if an object is held, touched or reached for, the arm furthest away from the viewer is used. There are some exceptions (dual tubes) but that doesn't matter here.

The weird thing is the following: four of the animals have items placed next to them (in a context where those items are rare) and all four of them touch the item with their far hand. So one could say that they obey both the leg and the arm rule. I wouldn't make much of it if the animals weren't so absurdly touching their items. Really, look at all four of them with the arm rule in mind.

(13-08-2017, 07:54 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.HI Anton,
I wondered about that afterwards - do you have more information on this?

None, except for the natural assumption that the guy was not proficient in depicting animals, so he followed the same rough template, making it lion or goat with little additional effort.