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Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

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• Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

• Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

  Jorge_Stolfi > 4 hours ago

  [Sorry of this has been asked before.  I tried searching the site but came up with nothing]
  
  The central figure on the Rosettes page (f85v2, fRos) shows six towers with "onion" roofs, apparently supporting the starry heavens.
  
  Has anyone found similar imagery in manuscripts from 1400 or earlier?  Or actual buildings with those features?
  
  Towers just like those -- round, with ribbed onion roofs, topped with a tapered trumpet-shaped cone piercing a ball -- seem to be characteristic features of Medieval Russian Orthodox cathedrals, and their more recent "Revival" style.  What was the geographic extent of that style?  Did it reach Central Europe? 
  
  It seems that the Russian towers were usually built into the cathedral.  The towers in the VMS, on the other hand, are free-standing, with characteristic "lobed swelling" at the base.  Is there any parallel to those bases, n imagery or actual buildings?
  
  All the best, --stolfi

• RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

  Rafal > 3 hours ago

  I'm not an expert but I believe that it was suggested in the past that the Rosettes city may be Jerusalem. Either real Jerusalem or new, heavenly Jerusalem ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. )
  
  It seems that medieval artists were aware that Jerusalem has a different architecture than European towns.
  
  
  
  

• RE: Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

  Koen G > 2 hours ago

  This would be a good line of investigation if we were certain that these represent towers. Here they are with a couple of vessels from the pharma section:
  
     
  
  As you can see, the same elements used in the "free standing towers" are also found in the vessels. Particularly interesting is the rightmost "tower" of the rosettes: that footed stem with a ring around it is typical for metal or woodworked handheld objects.
  
  So my first question would be: why should we interpret these as bizarrely freestanding towers?
  
  As for the style, if they do reference architecture, then it's likely an eastern Mediterranean city with "Holy Land" vibes, like Constantinople or Jerusalem. You'll find some towers and pillars with globe-shaped tops, for example in the Nuremberg Chronicle's images of Constantinople, which I think has overall Rosettes vibes. But nothing as extreme as those six objects, which would have massively exaggerated proportions if they are interpreted as purely architectural.
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