Re: The three Zodiac cards in Noblet, and the Gemini in books of hours
Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 20:15
I am not satisfied with any explanation for the two sticks: they are my worst sticking point. My only thought is that since there are two of them, it makes most sense to see them as related. If the lower one is a sort of garden border, then the upper one may be part of the same thing. There are lots of these trellis things in the garden pictures, and especially in the Gemini pictures. It can be such a trellis that serves as a fig-leaf for the couple:
Hours of Claude Molé France, Paris, ca. 1500 / Morgan MS M.356 fol. 3r
http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/5/76860
My idea is they are standing in front of such a fence, rather than behind it. I don't want either person to be holding up either stick: they have better things to do with their hands. The idea that the upper stick might go behind the man, is that he is standing in front of something, not that he is holding it up behind his back. The sticks are part of a structure connected to the ground. I don't want either of the sticks to be a banner providing the flapping cloth: I want only the two cloaks to do that. Concerning the cloaks I noticed that the figure on Viéville's XXI has a cloak like the ones that perhaps these figures have on the Cary sheet Sun card, with that pectoral fob.
Jacques Viéville (1650), Paris BnF
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10510963k
Hours of Claude Molé France, Paris, ca. 1500 / Morgan MS M.356 fol. 3r
http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/5/76860
My idea is they are standing in front of such a fence, rather than behind it. I don't want either person to be holding up either stick: they have better things to do with their hands. The idea that the upper stick might go behind the man, is that he is standing in front of something, not that he is holding it up behind his back. The sticks are part of a structure connected to the ground. I don't want either of the sticks to be a banner providing the flapping cloth: I want only the two cloaks to do that. Concerning the cloaks I noticed that the figure on Viéville's XXI has a cloak like the ones that perhaps these figures have on the Cary sheet Sun card, with that pectoral fob.
Jacques Viéville (1650), Paris BnF
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10510963k