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~~ Gallery 5 ~~ The Tarot and other Early Cards · page VII · THE TAROTS OF FERRARA |
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page I classic tarots |
page II regional tarots |
page III trump card arrangements |
page IV modern & non-standard |
page V theMulûk wa-Nuwwâb |
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page VI the Visconti Tarots |
page VIII the tarot of Marseille |
page IX the Tarot de Paris |
page X Viéville's Tarot |
page XI the Minchiate |
page XII Mitelli's Tarocchino |
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page XIII Mantegna's Tarot |
page XIV the Hofjagdspiel |
page XV the Hofämsterspiel |
page XVI the deck by Jost Amman |
page XVII the Italy 2 Moorish deck |
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· part 3 ·
THE TRUMPS
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detail from a Dick sheet: (top) queen of Swords and the Old Man a.k.a. Time (XI) (bottom) Justice (XX) and the World |
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The trump cards still extant are rather few, with the only exception of the series belonging to the Tarot of Charles VI (sixteen subjects). No subject has survived in all four tarots, and only nos.VI (Temperance) and XXI (the World) can be found in three tarots out of four. Therefore, a systematic review of all the subjects is not easy; especially the ones for which a comparison is no longer possible, having survived as single specimens, should be taken into consideration keeping in mind that different ways of depicting the same subject were not infrequent, even among tarots of the same group (the two Temperance cards shown on the right are an example). Some of the trumps missing in all the aforesaid illuminated decks, such as the Popess, the Empress, the Wheel of Fortune, and others, can still be investigated thanks to the Dick sheets, described in part 1. |
la Temperanza nel AS e nel CVI |
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EE ~ the Conjurer |
The first subject of the series, the Conjurer, besides the main personage (a public performer of tricks) always features one or more additional figures acting as an audience. This apparently insignificant detail, though never found in tarots of group C, enhances the metaphoric meaning of this card, i.e. 'man's lowest possible moral level', as not only he who performs the tricks, but also those who indulge in such trivial activity by simply watching it share the same condition. Two the Emperor cards are extant, namely from the CVI and the RS, and in both of them two small younger figures either stand or kneel by the main personage, whereas only in the Cary-Yale tarot, i.e. one of the earliest known in group C, the Emperor is accompanied by a couple of pages. |
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right: the debated subject from the RS |
Furthermore, none of the two specimens features a shield with an eagle, the device of the Holy Roman Emperor; such eagle is commonly found in the corresponding subject belonging to tarots of group C. Interestingly, the Emperor card from RS is the object of a debate between two leading experts in the field of tarots, Stuart Kaplan and Michael Dummett. Only the former believes this card to be a trump, as the latter considers it the king of Coins, after the large coin held in his left hand. In favour of Kaplan's theory are the two small 'additional' figures (which the king of Batons of the same tarot does not have), and the coin held by the main personage, also found in the same subject from the CVI, as if this represented a further peculiar attribute of the Emperor in Ferrara tarots. |
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The main reason of such discrepancy is the slightly different size of some of the cards rejected by Kaplan: differences vary according to the subjects, although they remain within 3-4 cm, and an accurate measurement of the cards is also rather difficult, due to the curved surface of some of them. Dummett, instead, grounds his attribution criteria on the graphic style of the illustrations and on the texture of the border that frames the subjects (see part 1 for a comparison). Some other scholars have tried to conciliate the two positions by suggesting that the mismatching cards may have been added to the original deck some time later, as replacements for lost or damaged subjects; this could explain the slightly mismatching size, despite the graphic features are perfectly consistent with the original cards of the deck. |
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detail of the pope's head, from CVI and EE |
Note that in the CVI the pontiff does not wear a beard, unlike the one found in the EE and in most other tarots known, of either group; evidently, who painted the CVI knew what the actual pope in Rome looked like: in fact, during the 1400s none of the popes wore a beard, as can be told by paintings and etchings. Looking at the personage more in detail, his facial features do not even look generic, as if the author of the tarot had tried to portray an actual pontiff. |
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Trump no.VI is Temperance, whose iconography is based on the traditional female figure pouring water from one vessel into another; but in AS she is surprisingly sitting on the back of a deer, completely naked (previously shown). The symbolic meaning of such an unusual attitude remains obscure. The card called Love (VII), known as the Lovers in group C, has only survived in the CVI; in the scene it features, not one but three couples dressed in elegant clothes gaily proceed below two arrow-shooting Cupids. |
EE ~ Temperance |
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CVI ~ Love |
A fragment of one of the Dick sheets, though, seems to feature the well-known iconography of this subject, with one Cupid above, and a single couple of lovers below, whose only unusual detail is that the female figure has just been hit by a love dart. Here the number 'VIII' shows that this tarot follows a ranking scheme in which Love is higher than the Chariot, as mentioned in page III (see ARCHAIC ORDERINGS for details). |
Dick sheet ~ fragment of Love; note the personages' fancy hair-do |
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A triumphal scene is even more clearly expressed in the subject found along one side of the Dick sheets, although only half of the card is left: a winged figure (Victory?) balances on a globe set atop a decorated chariot, surrounded by personages riding the same vehicle. Between the horse and the frame of the illustration, some unclear details, maybe a folded arm with a long sleeve, may belong to a footman (as in AS).
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The Wheel of Fortune has only survived as one of the uncut subjects of the Dick sheets, therefore we can only suppose that the same design may have been shared also by illuminated decks. It is consistent with the traditional allegory of group C, with the only difference that the personages facing the ups and downs of human life are four. |
Dick sheet ~ the Wheel of Fortune |
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Trump no.XI, the Old Man, is very similar to the equivalent subject in group C, i.e. the Hermit. The only mismatching part between the two is the hourglass that Ferrara tarot's personage holds in one hand; for this reason, he is also referred to as Time. In the other group, this object developed into a lantern, likely due to its mistaken shape. This shows how important symbols are in tarot illustrations; an apparently insignificant detail can cause the whole subject to change its name. Allegorical personages, being entirely fictional, have no visual identity of their own: they express themselves only by means of conventional attributes, i.e. allusive clothes, objects, animals etc. which according to a metaphoric language act almost as a 'label'. If the attribute changes, sometimes by mistake, also the personage turns into another, losing its original identity. |
are almost identical |
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CVI ~ the Traitor |
The iconography seems identical to that of group C, both in the CVI (on the left) and in the Dick sheets (a narrow fragment, only featuring the left stump of the scaffold, yet enough to guess the rest of the illustration). An interesting detail of the CVI card are the bags held in each hand by the young man. They are not tied to his wrists, and his fingers are clearly clutching them willingly, as if their contents, likely coins, was worth the further sacrifice of holding an extra weight, despite the very uncomfortable position (a metaphor of greed?). Trump no.XIII, Death also in Ferrara tarots, is featured as a skeleton mounted on horseback, that wields a scythe. |
CVI ~ Death |
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Dick sheet ~ the Devil |
The card belonging to the illuminated deck is more ornate and colourful, and the ground below the horse is scattered with the corpses of high personalities (a pope and two cardinals, arranged in a very similar position as in the fourth trump), meaning that death strikes impartially. Sadly, the Devil trump went lost in all four major tarots, but it survived in the Dick sheets. The main discrepancy with the tarots of group C is the presence of one or more additional faces along the body of the demon: usually it had one on the belly, and sometimes others on the chest, on the main joints, etc., according to an iconography often used in the Middle Ages, shared by tarots of groups B and A (i.e. Ferrara and Bologna). Instead it never featured more than one personage, such as the small chained demons often found in tarots of group C. Subject no.XV is probably the one with the most controversial name among the set of trumps. In Ferrara it was called either Fire or Lightning, whereas tarots of group C use a different name, the Tower (subject no.XVI, one rank ahead), and in the Tarot of Marseille it is also known as the House of God, but other names such as the House of the Devil, the House of the Damned and the House of Pluto are also known from literary sources (see page III). |
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However, in all cases the subject appears rather similar, with the only exception of some editions designed in French-speaking areas (see the Tarot de Paris and the Tarot of Viéville). A mighty tower is stricken by a thunderbolt, that sets fire to it, sometimes causing it to crumble, as in the CVI; in tarots made in Ferrara (and in Bologna too) no dwellers tumble to the ground, as commonly found in group C. Another slight difference is that the building has a square section instead of a round one. Curiously, in Bologna (group A) the shape of the building is square, very similar to the one from CIV, but it is called the Tower, and shares with group C also the sixteenth rank. In the Dick sheets this subject is printed upside-down; in old tarots a similar mistake was not too infrequent, but it more often concerned the Traitor (or Hanged Man, in group C); this suggests that some craftsmen in charge for the making of the printing plates of tarot decks, had difficulty in understanding some of the subjects they were working on, up to the point of carving them the wrong way round. Since in the Dick sheets the card's roman numeral too is upside down, i.e. consistent with the burning tower, the clumsy craftsman may have likely copied the subject from a model. |
CVI ~ Lightning (Fire) |
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PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 4 |
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page I classic tarots |
page II regional tarots |
page III trump card arrangements |
page IV modern & non-standard |
page V theMulûk wa-Nuwwâb |
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page VI the Visconti Tarots |
page VIII the tarot of Marseille |
page IX the Tarot de Paris |
page X Viéville's Tarot |
page XI the Minchiate |
page XII Mitelli's Tarocchino |
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page XIII Mantegna's Tarot |
page XIV the Hofjagdspiel |
page XV the Hofämsterspiel |
page XVI the deck by Jost Amman |
page XVII the Italy 2 Moorish deck |
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INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY |
MULTI-LANGUAGE GLOSSARY |
THE FOOL & THE JOKER |
INDEX TABLE |
REGIONAL GAMES |
PLAYING CARD LINKS |
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