Re: How eccentric is the Sola-Busca?
Posted: 13 Jan 2015, 10:34
I recognize "Pan plus an addition" and Alchemy and Sun-Moon-Star.
:-) ... somehow I think of the holy three kings.
"Pan" means "all".
Over 500 years of history in 78 cards
https://forum.tarothistory.com/
The Sacrificial Body And the Day of Doom: Alchemy And Apocalyptic Discourse in the Protestant Reformation, by Urszula Szulakowska BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2006, p.38 'the cosmic body of christ-anthropos'.Although this manuscript contains some imagery that can be found elsewhere in alchemical texts, such as the alchemical egg (folio 13r), it also includes drawings that are much rarer, or even unique to it, such as the figures of a dying man (folio 16r) (fig. 6) and a recumbent woman with a skull (folio 16v) (fig. 7). There is a series of imagery of suns, moons, the four elements and alchemical equip ment, as well as one unique image of a clenched fist that is an ancient counting system, using the fingers of the hand as a primitive abacus (folio 14r).31 It is also a mnemonic device and the necessity of an accurate memory is the topic of three folios (8v, 13v and 14r).32 Jung identified the figures of the male and female as being those of “Adam” and “Eve” in the Garden of Eden (though the treatise lacks a serpent).33 The originality of the manuscript illustrations validates Obrist’s observation that there were no predetermined schemata that alchemical illustrators felt obliged to follow.34 In this particular case, for example, there is no Ouroboros to depict the unity of matter, nor any birds to represent the spirit, or the distillation process. There is no bizarre hermaphroditic figure to symbolise the union of male and female in the stone. Instead, the figure of Pan Silvanus is “to pan,” the Macrocosm in the form of the Microcosmic stone. This Paduan emblem was, in fact, a reinterpretation of a medieval exegesis in which Pan had been equated with Christ. The style of the figures is related to the classical revival taking place in Padua in the 1440s to 1450s, inspired by Donatello’s pres-ence at the Santo church. Local antiquarians, such as the humanists Cyriaco d’Ancona and Felice Feliciano had provided the initial stimulus to an interest in the antique remains in the Veneto. The figure of Pan in the manuscript recalls the artist Mantegna’s similar interest in such semi-human forms which he was the first to explore in the frescoes of the Eremitani church, as well as in a variety of engravings on the theme of the Dionysia that incorporate pans, fauns and sylvani. Various stylistic elements in the figure drawings suggest that the manuscript is Paduan, but the most conclusive evidence is in the written script. This accords with hands such as that of Bartolommeo Squarca of Padua in the 1470s, being the same half-rounded, Italianate style that preserves Gothic mannerisms and decorative flourishes characteristic of the North-East region, a mixture of cursive and angular.35 The Paduan manuscript with the folio of Pan Silvanus was copied and further elaborated in the early seventeenth century by the illustrator of a manuscript in the British Library, MS London British Library Sloane 1316. In this copy, Pan (folio 13r) is shown as wearing the sun and moon in his hair and he is labelled: “Ista ficus est lapis pater Silvanus.” (fig. 8) He is seated on the ground, playing some bagpipes and is made to state: “sum lapis philosophorum.” Lost in this copy, however, has been the alchemical numerology and symbolism of the Paduan version, which had referred primarily to his Macrocosmic significance as the body of the All. He has lost his former goat’s hooves and his once magnificent bagpipe now retains only one of its seven pipes. In the Paduan original, Pan’s physical components were a metaphoric explication of the physical composition of the universe. His face takes the form of the red sun, while a crescent-moon in his hair stands for his goat’s horns. His body is shown as hairy. The bagpipe that he carries has seven pipes, representing the seven metals and the planetary bodies. Pan is constituted of the four elements in descending order, thus: water (moon), fire (sun), air (bagpipes) and earth (body and hooves). His elemental construction, plus the fact that bagpipe has the shape of an alchemical still, reveals him to be a symbol of the philosopher’s stone. His position in the treatise immediately after pictures of Adam and Eve (sulphur and mercury) dying in the Garden of Eden, indicates that he is their progeny in the form of the perfectly harmonised stone of the philosophers, the resurrected Cosmic Man.
mikeh wrote:Good amplification of bagpipe symbolism in relation to Pan and satyrs, Steve. I had no idea. Your last long quote is particularly relevant to the image I posted from Biblioteca Laurenziana MS. Ashburnham 1166, in that it explains the symbolism of the four pipes, clearly visible on that one. 'The cosmic body of christ-anthropos' is pretty good.
Silvanus was identified with Faunus or Pan, but possibly originated from the Etruscan "Selvans".Silvanus wird häufig mit Faunus oder Pan gleichgesetzt, geht aber möglicherweise auf den etruskischen Gott Selvans zurück.