Allow me to quote the author of the aformentioned work, David Ovason:

The original source for the term Green Language was the French Langue Vert. The Vert (Green) is almost certainly an example of arcane aphesis. In French, ouvert means open. The Langue Ouvert was the open language, the tongue of ordinary men. When ouvert became vert by this aphetic change, it meant the opposite of open, i.e. closed; the Langue Vert was therefore the closed language, the occult language, the hidden tongue. ... As a result, in this strange language, a word which may appear quite ordinary is invested with another, deeper meaning comprehensible only to those who anticipate such a hidden meaning.

Whether termed the Green Language or the Language of the Birds, this language has the same feeling for vitality, for primordial and pristine strength, as the Green Man faces of medieval cathedral sculpture, and it is quite possible that the green foliage emerging from these mouths is meant to symbolize the rich "greening" of the opaque language. To select but one example, there may be no doubt that the greenery in the mouth of Botticelli's Chloris in his Primavera, in the Ufizi, is a reference to esoteric speech. The flowers are anemones, roses and centauries, each with their individual arcane symbolism, yet the wonder is that they are issuing from the mouth, as though the goddess was a Green Woman, breathing vegetation.

Yes, indeed. And while Mr. Ovason considers Botticelli's Primavera or Spring to be the most arcane of all Renaissance works, a predecessor, Cosimo Tura of the Este court, had painted an earlier Primavera, also known as Spring or An Allegorical Figure. I have carried a miniature of this painting for the past five years half way around the world, not knowing why until today. Perhaps we should investigate this man called Tura, who painted some 20 years prior to the genius, Little Barrel, Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, or more popularly: Sandro Botticelli.









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