RE: Rosettes and Revelations Pt.1: The Holy City - Koen Gheuens and Cary Rapaport
R. Sale > 02-02-2022, 10:20 PM
Perhaps it is the use of perspective, or the invention of graph paper. Though the various representations claim to portray the same thing, it is often clear that they do not present the same visual appearance. There hasn't been any real standardization of how the image 'should' be presented. While cloud-band type cosmic boundaries are used by various artists, there is a great variety of presentations in relevant manuscripts.
Even within versions of historical texts, the illustrations change. All the posthumous versions of Gautier de Metz show variations in the cosmic illustrations. But there are none that prepare for total revision shown in the Harley 334 edition (f. 11r and f. 29r). The replacement of the standard, poly-concentric model of the cosmos by the pictorial, inverted T-O structure. The closest similarity is the Oresme cosmos of Paris c.1410. It's the same "Paris" version of cosmic structure, but with variation, even the two Harley illustrations have their variations in the same text.
The various works of Christine de Pisan show this artistic variation, specifically in the illustration of Pegasus and the Muses. There are clearly different versions of the illustration, depending on the direction of flight. In contrast to Harley 4431 with red-winged Pegasus, there is the version of BNF Fr. 1188 f. 14r. This is a bit more naturalistic and rather greenish. And provenance appears to place it in the library of Jean, Duc du Berry. Along with Oresme, Melusine and the Berry Apocalypse.
It's time to dust off the old icons, when we can find them. New Jerusalem would certainly qualify as an icon, but what is the purpose of the map? It must also be considered, as shown by the heraldic ambiguity of VMs White Aries, that some of the dust was intentionally created by the artist.