SYMBOLIC ACCESSORIES
THE CORD
At the feet of the temporal facet of Melchizedek, in the presence of Charles the Bold, a knotted cord is observed, coiled, which I take to constitute the body of a device (divisa), whose soul – a knotted cord = concordia = accord – would allude to the pact of union celebrated between the two cousins, Afonso and Charles.
It is not idle to recall the admonition of the Evangelist Matthew (XVIII, 18), according to which “Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven”, which in the context under consideration becomes especially eloquent.
KNOT OF LOVE
The knot of Love (the Ficinian spiritus) identifies the initiatic Love of the Faithful of Love, moved by the breath of the Holy Spirit, having as its Orient the Anima Prima, seat of the sphere of Ideas and Archetypes, constituting a sign of the consummation of cosmic solidarity (the Age of the Holy Spirit).
Several of those portrayed display knots of Love on their caps, arms, shoulders, legs, etc.
CARAMINHOLA
Fourteen of the figures wear a conical cap, identical to the pileus characteristic of freed slaves during the Saturnalia, as a sign of their provisional freedom, but likewise akin to those worn by the priests of Zoroaster, officiants of the celestial fire.
An explicit allusion to their unconditional adherence to the redemptive (liberating) Mission of the Holy Spirit?
