RE: The empty throne
R. Sale > 15-08-2021, 06:56 PM
The double rainbow and the vesica piscis were design elements used in religious illustrations. They became religious symbols. So using the double rainbow as an example of metonymy is a possibility. The de Pizan example of an empty throne would have been current in the early 1400s.
The VMs is obviously ambiguous, to say the least. The throne is there, but it is empty. It could hardly be more clueless.
Religious tradition and medieval art history would indicate that there should be an image of Christ seated on the double rainbow throne. Religious history, current events of the 1400s, reveals an event of great significance that came to the city of Dijon and involved a similar image of Christ.
The strength of metonymic symbolism, the ability to make the connection between the throne and its 'occupant', to recall the *existence*, let alone the details, of this particular event at Dijon would have been present at that time, but it has - shall we say - faded with the passing centuries. Their reality has long passed and so the throne 'appears' empty.
History, however, sets forth a very specific marker in time and place. It is a result very similar in some ways to the that of the investigation of the Golden Fleece. Two specific historical events within the VMs C-14 dates. Two witnesses to the nature of the VMs.