My personal opinion is that the analysis of details can go in parallel with the analysis of larger sections in the manuscript. In particular, this illustration can be compared with several illustrations in Quire 13.
I will not try here to formulate a complete “grammar” of Q13 illustrations, but I think there are recurring patterns in how nymphs are represented in Q13b (i.e. excluding folios with large pools):
At the top there often is the
Source of some kind of
Fluid. This triangular shape seems to me to fit this category. The
Source can be the “
Tub” of another nymph higher in the page. Often the
Source has a shape that is difficult to classify and that includes cloud-like patterns (see attached details for a few examples). Some
Sources seem more identifiable but are still puzzling (“pine-cones”, a dead animal, canopies, rainbows…).
Sources are often labelled (e.g. attached details 82v, 78r).
The
Fluids are highly differentiated: helicoid 76v, straight lines and dots 77v, parallel waves 78r, short vertical dashes 80v, dashes and single dots 84r etc. This is particularly evident in the illustration at the top of You are not allowed to view links.
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Sources, also the different
Fluids must be meaningful.
Under the
Source there is a
Nymph.
The
Nymph often holds an
Attribute (the three blossoms / spikes / leaves in this example; ring in 80v; cross in 79v etc).
OR
she is interacting with the extremity of a
Pipe (e.g. 77v, 79r in the attached examples, or the “star cannon” in You are not allowed to view links.
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Pipes are often labelled.
It is almost mandatory that the nymph stands in some kind of
Tub (Quire 13 b). The main exceptions to this rule seem to me to be the guy in 80r (who is also exception for being a man and being dressed) and the nymph at the top of 79r. The You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. detail pointed out by Koen is the most clear and striking exception: she could also be the first nymph of Quire 13 b (since the recto of the folio appears to be an unillustrated first page of quire).
It is quite interesting that the Tub can also function as Source for a lower nymph, sometimes producing long vertical chains like You are not allowed to view links.
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I see the nymph in 76v as largely paralleled by other nymphs: this leads me to interpret the fluid in 76v as going down, as it more clearly does in other illustrations. The closest detail to the Source of 76v seems to me to be the “collateral source” below the top nymph in 79r: I interpret these shapes as meant to represent cones seen in profile.
Each nymph is unique, but each one also has traits in common with the others. So one can switch back and forth between what is unique and what is common, trying to make sense of the whole. In the end, I hope it could be possible to restrict the number of possibilities for the subject of the illustration cycle, but I am quite sure that several of the details cannot be explained in a satisfactory way.
Several elements of Q13b appear in other parts of the manuscript, such as You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. (a composition of four amazingly complex sources) and the Rosettes diagram (even more complex). If we could understand more of the visual syntax of Quire 13 we could also understand more of those other diagrams.