RE: The top of VMs Pisces
R. Sale > 27-06-2016, 12:10 AM
Anton,
Thanks for your reply. Indeed, you are correct, in part. The two top figures sit in tubs with very similar patterns of vertical stripes - the same pattern for all intents and purposes IMO. But what you suggest, going all the way around in search of fulfilling some complex, undefined methodology of arrangement is complicated and unrewarding at best. Why not start by looking for simple patterns that are clearly attested by the illustration? The simplest pattern that I can suggest is pairing. And at the top of Pisces, we have, as you suggest, a pair of very similar patterns.
Now, reexamine the illustration in more detail. To either side of the pair of striped patterns, there is a tub with a stippled pattern. Now there are an inner pair and and an outer pair, based of tub patterns - a pair of pairs. Look at the figures in these four tubs. From what I can tell of basic anatomy, there are a pair of women to the right and a pair of men to the left. Arranged by gender and tub pattern, we now have a pair of couples, male and female.
This is a subtle, almost {[always successfully]} subliminal introduction of the concept of pairs. If by chance the idea of pairing was missed or considered to be irrelevant, it has also been introduced a second time in the central medallions of the first five houses of the VMs Zodiac - a series of images in which not only are the individual houses all paired, but there are corresponding pairs between the houses. Thus a pair of aquatic animals (fish) in Pisces and (crayfish) in Cancer combine to make a pair of pairs, a pair of land animals in Aries and also in Taurus, and so on.
So the first idea introduced by the four figures is pairing. [Basic pattern recognition based upon the simplest of patterns plainly exhibited.] [[ And... apparently slipping by under our proverbial noses.]]
The second idea to be introduced by these figures and their tub patterns, though more weakly in these first four examples, is that of heraldry. A pattern of alternating vertical stripes corresponds to the heraldic example of a paly. And moving a bit further clockwise, if the pattern of chevrons fails to suggest the possibility of heraldry, perhaps that is a shortcoming on the part of the investigator, not a flaw in the illustration. Other heraldic identifications exist in the outer circle of Pisces. Further examples of pairing exist between heraldic examples on Pisces and others on the Aries pages.
Now to further combine these two ideas, pairing and heraldry, and to propose an investigation into the possibility of historical correspondence in VMs White Aries.
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Koen,
I really like the first one. It's a ringer.
The second is indeterminate. There are a limited number of ways to show a pattern of alternating colored stripes in situations where colored pigments are not in use.
The third one doesn't work. The VMs shows a pattern of chevrons, the Egyptian example shows a pattern where little 'chevrons' are used, but the overall pattern itself is stripes, not chevrons.
The potential interpretation of correspondence with medieval heraldry is shown by the use of alternating vertical, horizontal and diagonal stripes, alternating stripes in the chevron pattern, the use of concentric circles, and the use of the scale pattern, all of which have closely corresponding, standard examples and specific terminology in medieval heraldry. Plus the semy of roundels, the use of engrailed lines and so on. All from a single source and demonstrated on a single page of the VMs.
Interesting that you should see influences of the Classical past so well, and yet not see what for the VMs author would have been the medieval present, which would in many situations under European influence, for an educated person of that time, certainly include the knowledge of medieval armorial heraldry.