RE: Gemini from wedding imagery
-JKP- > 03-09-2018, 03:15 PM
When I was looking into the Lauber studio and its forerunners, I did so because I was hoping to uncover some information about familial or business-based connections. It was the similarities in palette, some of the drawing style, and some of the critters and ponds that provoked my interest.
The people who commissioned works from studios generally had money and those who were relatives of people in the studios sometimes had access to materials (parchment, quills, etc.).
The VMS does not have the look-and-feel of a workshop-created manuscript but it DOES have the look-and-feel of someone who understood the basics of creating one and ACCESS to materials, in fact, good materials (the "map" foldout being of particular importance). This knowledge of how to put together a manuscript, without quite having professional level skills, is why I thought it might be an associate or relative of someone who owned or worked in a workshop rather than an actual workshop. Or perhaps even someone who might have considered commissioning something and then, in the end, created it themselves, but used something purchased from the workshop, or ideas they saw while manuscripts were being created, to guide them as to how to put it together.
But... information on the workshops themselves and the people who worked in them is scanty. The information on those who commissioned the works is scanty too although there is a bit.
....
Diepolt/Diebolt Lauber was a handwriting tutor. He had awful handwriting (I think most Gothic cursive handwriting is awful and his wasn't much better than average), but he was an eager businessman and advertised his services widely, so not all his income came from the workshop. But the fact that he was a handwriting tutor was another important piece of information that caught my attention because being a tutor gave one access to noble houses, and thus connections within the upper classes, and perhaps one of those families (or some of his students), had an interest in what he was creating in his studio. The Schilling side of the family probably had the same kinds of connections.
Whoever created the VMS had enough free time to do it. I think it was more likely created for personal use (or to pass on to one's children/heirs) rather than for someone with an interest in buying it. I could be wrong (completely wrong), I'm only going on subjective impressions. What I do know is that very few people in the middle ages had free time other than the upper classes or those that produced the more costly products (e.g., gold- and silverware and possibly manuscripts) on their behalf, so the VMS was more likely produced by someone who was a little higher, rather than lower, on the social scale (this might seem obvious, but still needs to be verified by facts).
..
One aspect of the manuscript that seems to support this is the small-plants section. Not only is this time-consuming work, but very few people had ever seen such beautiful "spice jars" (or whatever the containers represent). This level of craftsmanship was definitely restricted to more wealthy individuals and the VMS containers surpass even some of the best that were available at the time (I spent considerable time researching this). The person who drew them either had an extraordinary imagination, or had seen the belongings of some of the highest levels of society.