RE: [split] The Golden Fleece and the two VM creatures
R. Sale > 05-10-2020, 08:15 PM
The visual similarities are interesting. And structurally, two of the three major elements are held in common. Both have a 'ram' or some cousin of a sheep. Both have have a nebuly line, nicely done in the Tubingen illustration. But the third element in the Tubingen is the Sun. There is no sun in VMs critter illustration, the third part of the VMs is entirely different.
The Tubingen illustration might easily be interpreted as Aries has arrived and the sun is in the sky. I don' get that interpretation from the VMs critter. It's something more subtle, more mysterious, much more poorly presented - to heighten the ambiguity.
Reconsidering BNF 13096, exactly what is taking place in the illustration? It is an apocalypse after all, the end of the earth, the punishment of the wicked, and all that. But if that is true, then it would be the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, that is sending the punishment in the illustration. However, since the Agnus Dei is in a way an avatar for Christ, this might be seen as problematic. Somehow "Lamb, the Punisher" doesn't seem like the correct interpretation. So, perhaps it is something else, like the resurrection of the dead. The artist attempts to represent this power, but how could anyone do that?
So this is the problem with interpretations based on visual similarity; unless there is a very high degree of identity, there is always going to be ambiguity. The VMs was built to exploit this ambiguity. The VMs inverted T-O Earth presents a linguistic representation, not a pictorial image. Appearance cannot be trusted. Not that it is invalid. It's been made ambiguous.
What can be trusted, what can be objectively determined is position and location and structure. The key either turns the lock or it does not. There's no ambiguity about it. (And no cheating.) Structure is either the same or it is different.* So the problem with the Tubingen illustration, besides having only two of the three essential elements, is that it has the alternate structure: both elements are on the same side of the nebuly line, rather than being on opposite sides, like the VMs. Even if there had been an actual connection, that doesn't help explain the elemental and structural differences in the VMs image.
*The VMs presents some representations using combined sources, so it is not possible to say the resulting hybrid is either the same or different. Combinations can be separated.
What results is a match of VMs structure with historical tradition, backed up by visual ambiguity, which either promotes or contradicts those interpretations - depending...