R. Sale > 20-06-2020, 07:39 AM
The images in primary consideration in the VMs are (1) You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. the so-called mermaid. If interpreted according to the tradition of Valois ancestral belief, this is Melusine. (2) You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. the so called critter (aka armadillo) If interpreted according according to to the Burgundian origins of the Golden Fleece and the combination of the 1313
Apocalypse of S Jean (BNF Fr. 1396) owned at that time by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, then both of these items share a limited and fairly well defined situation of potential historical provenance.
And if the inspiration for the the VMs rainbow (3) You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. is taken from a source that shares the same Valois-Burgundian provenance, then the image of the figure sitting on a rainbow, Sainte Hostie, has strong connections that are particularly and peculiarly linked to the provenance of the first two examples.
Not that an item may have an alternate interpretation. Not that an item may have multiple interpretations. But if that were the case, it would seem more likely that each interpretation would have a provenance that was unrelated to the provenance from the other investigations.
Here are three separate items, with interpretations historically validated, which share a coincident provenance, that falls within the range of the most restrictive version of C-14 dating. That's a fact. Can it be dismissed as mere coincidence?
The matter of oak and ivy is a trick employed in VMs illustrations to foil potential identification. If VMs illustration X is composed of elements from two sources (A and B), how can it be identified? If A and B are unknown, it cannot be identified. If only A (or only B) is known, it still cannot be fully identified because it contains the elements from the other, unknown source. Only if both A and B are known can X be identified as the combination of two sources.
Various investigators have suggested the Golden Fleece in relation to the the You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. discussion. However that provides no explanation for the nebuly line and the rest of the illustration. That comes from the Agnus Dei image in the Burgundy library. The match is a structural sequence: lamb / cosmic boundary / emanation = droplets of blood.
The VMs cosmos is only partially explained by similarities with the image from BNF Fr. 565 fol 23. Each cosmic representation has the sequence: inverted T-O Earth, surrounding stars, encompassed by a cosmic boundary with 43 undulations shown. The VMs cosmos then contains part B, the large outer circle and eight curved, connecting spokes. The only remotely plausible comparison for this part is the Shirakatsi diagram of the Eight Phases of the Moon. And even this is not impossible given the few direct and many indirect connections between Burgundy (including Flanders) and Armenia, Trebizond, and Byzantium.
The other method of misdirection in VMs illustrations, the separation of normally associated elements, the rainbow throne and its occupant, the VMs cosmos and the scallop-shell pattern, cloud band (moved to the central rosette), or the intentional division of VMs Aries and Taurus, are also examples of disguise and deception used to create sufficient ambiguity to foil identification by those who lack the full details of the chosen tradition and cannot follow the artist's hidden agenda.