Thursday, July 23, 2015

English translations of Bellosi & Fiorini

BELLOSI: INTRODUCTION

 From Interlibrary Loan I got a copy of Luciano Bellosi's 1985 article attributing the Rothschild cards to da Ponte, reprinted in his book of 2000, the relevant section on pp. 200-201. He provides us with comparisons to del Ponte's works that have not been made so far on this thread.

Not pictured are the St. Julian and St. John the Baptist in the Museo Horne, the St. Francis in Oakly [Oakley?] Park, the St. George triptych in Columbia, and the Saint Peter enthroned of San Piero Scheraggio. Other than the St. George, I can't find them on the Web, or I'd display them.

In what follows, the numbers in parentheses are to these pictures, which Bellosi has in the margin next to the sentences where I put them. The one number in brackets is where a new page starts.

I think his points of comparison to dal Ponte (he calls him "del Ponte").are well taken, although I don't quite understand, at the end, what is "di sciatto e di spiegazzato" (slopply and crumpled) about the drawing of #266; it looks pretty good to me.

The designation of one of the cards as "Mondo" (World) is of course what leads him to say they are tarocchi. But if so, it is not like any other "World" card I know, except in showing someone holding a circular object. I would think it might be an early Page of Coins. Perhaps these standing figures weren't originally defined clearly as pages, and hence young as opposed to just servants. The d'Este page of staves is not young, for example. If so, then it may not be a tarocchi, but some other type of deck, perhaps for the game referred to in 1423 as "VIII Emperors". This point does not affect the dating or the artist assigned to the deck.

BELLOSI: ITALIAN ORIGINAL (TRANSLATION AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOLLOW) 

Un disegno di Giovanni del Ponte e alcune carte da tarocchi

Il. nn. 563 del Corpus del Degenhard si riferisce ad un foglio di ubicazione sconosciuta, ma che fino al 1940 si trovava a Rotterdam [266]. Vi si vedono due giovani, voltati verso destra con una certa ostentazione. A figure intera, un po' torvi nell'espressione e schizzati con notevole rapidità e disinvoltura, sembrano lontani sia dalla pulizia formale e dal candore del Pesellino che dalle forme umane più bruscamente squadrate di Apollonio di Giovanni sono i due punti di riferimento indicati dal Degenhart e dalla Schmitt per questi personaggi maschile. Slanciati ed eleganti, essi partecipano ancora del "verticalismo" gotico e mi sembrano strettamente affini ai modi corsivi di Giovanni del Ponte, un pittore più antico di almeno una generazione rispetto agli altri due, formatosi nell'ambiente artistico fiorentino dei primi due decenni del Quattrocento in prossimità di Lorenzo Monaco e, soprattutto, della Starnina, alias "Maestro del Bambino vispo" 52.

Il carattere corsivo di questo disegno è particolarmente ben confrontabile con certe opere di Giovanni che, per la rapidità dellàesecuzione, assomigliano quasi a degli abbozzi, come - ad essempio - i due sportelli di tabernacolo con San Giuliano e san Giovanni Battista già nel Museo Horne. Di Giovanni del Ponte esistono, comunque, dei prodotti di carattere artigianale eseguiti in una tecnica quasi identica e con una corsività di tratti anche maggiore. Mi riferisco ad un mazzo da tarocchi di cui sono arrivati fino a noi solo pochi pezzi, conservati nella collezione Rothschile, presso il Gabinetto dei Disegni del Louvre. Essi vengono considerati cose dell' Italia settentrionale della fine del Quattrocento 53, ma il loro ambito reale e perfino il loro autore sono testimoniati a sufficienza dai rapporti con i dipinti di Giovanni del Ponte.

L'Imperatore si confronta bene col Sant'Antonio abate in una predella del Museés Royaux di Bruxelles o col San Giovanni Battista ex Horne; il Cavaliere di bastoni col San Francesco della anconetta della collezione Earl of Plymouth, Oakly Park (269-270, 267); il Mondo (?) con [201] certi vecchioni che compaiono nella predella con Storie di santa Caterina della tavola del Museé des Beaux-Arts di Budapest (271-272)(soprattutto nella pittoresca increspatura della barba lanosa); il Cavaliere di bastoni col San Giorgio del trittico Kress di Columbia 54 e anche con i due bellimbusti del disegno da cui siamo partiti (266-267). Se si prescinde dall'effetto più "tinto" e quasi in controluce sul fondo oro della carta da tarocchi, che è colorata, si noteranno, oltre alle affinità tipologiche, anche le somiglianze stringenti nei segni di contorno, marcati ma flessibili, e nelle acquarellature sommarie e quasi impressionistiche. Sia il disegno che il Cavaliere di bastoni del tarocco Rothschild trovano una perfetta corrispondenza anche con altri passaggi pittorici di Giovanni del Ponte, come nel giovane re e nel palafreniere che assiste i cavalli sulla destra dell'Adorazione dei Magi (268) delle stessa predella di Bruzelles già citata. Il curioso modo di tenere le mani l'una sull'altra nel giovane in secondo piano del disegno, come se fosse ammanettato, è una singolare formula di Giovanni del Ponte e la si ritrova quasi identica - per esempio - nel cardinale seduto a sinistra del pannello con San Pietro in cattedra della predella di San Piero Scheraggio.

Con Giovanni del Ponte si spiegano molto bene anche le volate grafice dei lunghi ricaschi delle stoffe e quel tanto di sciatto e di spiegazzato che fa dei due giovani del disegno di ubicazione ignota una versione un po' romantica e "bohémienne" degli elegantoni aggiornati alla moda 1425-30 che si vedono in Masolino, in Giovanni Toscani ecc.
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52. Su Giovanni di Marco, più noto come Giovanni del Ponte, arrivo a Firenze dal 1405-10 circa al 1437, si vedano le precisazioni di F. GUIDI, Per una nuova cronologia di Giovanni di Marco, in "Paragone", 223, 1968, pp. 27-46; Idem. Ancora su Giovanni di Marco, in "Paragone", 239, 1970, pp. 11-23.
53. Si veda il catalogo, a cura di PIERRE J.R., della mostra Les Incunables de la collection Edmond de Rothschild, Museé de Louvre, 1974, pp. 27 e 28. I tarocchi Rothschild erano stati pubblicati da L. PUPPI, A proposito di Bonifacio Bembo e della sua bottega, in "Arte Lombarda", 1959, pp. 245-252, che li metteva in rapporto col Bembo, attribuendoli di "Maestro dei tarocchi di Castello Ursino". Il Puppi, p. 250, fig. 13, pubblicava anche un cavaliere di spade del Museo Civico di Bassano, che fa parte della stessa serie dei tarocchi Rothschild.
54. A questo proposito, è interessante riportare l'opinione di R. KLEIN (Les tarots enluminée du XVe siècle, in "L'Oeil", gennio 1967, p. 52) che i "cavalieri" di questa serie siano rappresentati come un san Giorgio.

BELLOSI: ENGLISH TRANSLATION,  WITH THE ILLUSTRATONS
Image
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 A drawing by Giovanni del Ponte and some tarocchi cards

Nos. 563 of the Corpus of Degenhart refer to a sheet of unknown location, but until 1940 in Rotterdam (266). There you will see two young men, turned toward the right with a certain ostentation. In whole figure, a bit grim of expression and sketched with remarkable rapidity and ease, they seem distant from both the clean lines and the whiteness of the human forms of Pesellino and those more abruptly squared of Apollonio di Giovanni, two reference points indicated by Degenhart and Schmitt for these male characters. Slender and elegant, they still participate in a Gothic "verticality "and seem closely related to the cursive style of Giovanni del Ponte, a painter of at least a generation earlier than the other two, who trained in the artistic ambit of Florence in the first two decades of the fifteenth century, in proximity to Lorenzo Monaco and, above all, to Starnina, alias "Master of the lively Child" 52.

The cursive character of this design is particularly comparable with certain works of Giovanni, for the speed of execution, almost resembling the sketches - for example - of the two doors of the tabernacle with St. Julian and St. John the Baptist in the Museo Horne. By Giovanni del Ponte there exist, however, artisan products executed in an almost identical technique with an even greater cursive treatment (267, 269, 271). I am referring to a deck of tarocchi of which have come down to us only a few pieces, preserved in the Rothschild collection in the Cabinet of Drawings at the Louvre. They are considered things of northern Italy at the end of the fifteenth century 53, but their real environment, and even their author, are testimony enough to a relationship with the paintings of Giovanni del Ponte.
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The Emperor compares well with Saint Anthony Abbot on a predella in the Musées Royaux Brussels or with the St. John the Baptist ex-Horne; the Knight of Staves with St. Francis of the altarpiece in the collection of the Earl of Plymouth, Oakly Park (269-270, 267); the World (?) with [201] some old men who appear in the predella of the panel Stories of St. Catherine of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Budapest (271-272) (especially in the picturesque ripple of the woolly beard); the Knight of Staves with the St. George triptych of the Kress triptych at Columbia 54 and also with the two dandies in the drawing with which we started (266-267). If you consider the more "stained " effect, almost backlit on the gold bottom of the tarocchi card, which is colored; you will notice, in addition to the typological affinities, the stringent similarities in the signs of the outline, marked yet flexible and in the watercolors cursory and almost impressionistic. The design of the Knight of Staves of the Rothschild tarot is in perfect correspondence with other depictions by Giovanni del Ponte, such as the young king and the groom who assists the horses on the right of the Adoration of the Magi of the Brussels predella already cited (268). The curious way of holding the hands one on the other in the youth in the second plane of the drawing, as if handcuffed, is a unique formula of Giovanni del Ponte and he is found almost identically - for example - in the cardinal sitting to the left in the panel of Saint Peter enthroned, the predella of San Piero Scheraggio.

With Giovanni del Ponte is explained very well the hurried graphics of the repeated lengths of the fabrics and something sloppy and crumpled which makes the design of the two young men of unknown location a version a bit of a romantic and "bohemian" version of the up to date elegance in the mode of dress fashionable 1425-30 that you see in Masolino, Govanni Toscani, etc.
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52 . For Giovanni di Marco, better known than Giovanni del Ponte, arriving in Florence from about 1405-10 to 1437, please see the details in F. GUIDI, Per una nuova cronologia di Giovanni di Marco (For a New Chronology of Giovanni di Marco), in "Paragone", 223, 1968, pp. 27-46; Idem. Ancora su Giovanni di Marco (Again onGiovanni di Marco), in "Paragone", 239, 1970, p. 11-23.

53. See the catalog edited by J. R. PIERRE , for the exhibition Les Incunables de la collection Edmond de Rothschild, Musée de Louvre, 1974, p. 27 and 28. The Rothschild tarocchi had been published by L. PUPPI , About Bonifacio Bembo and his workshop, in "Art Lombarda ", 1959, p. 245-252, who put them in relationship with Bembo, attributing them to "Master of the tarot of Castello Ursino". Puppi , p. 250, fig. 13, also published a knight of swords in the Civic Museum of Bassano , which is part of the same series of Rothschild tarocchi.

54. In this regard , it is of interest to quote the opinion of R. KLEIN (Les tarots enluminée emes du siècle, in "L'Oeil", January 1967, p. 52) that the "knights " of this series are represented as a St. George.)

MY ADDITIONS TO BELLOSI 

The November 2016 Catalog of the dal Ponte exhibition at the Accademia Gallery of Florence has good color reproductions of most of the artworks of dal Ponte which Bellosi compares to the cards. The Adoration of the Magi panel is here:

The St. Anthony Abbot is here:
And the detail Bellosi focuses on:

The History of St. Catherine predella is so small in the catalog that details cannot be made out, at least at the maximum resolution available to me. A good imae of it is at https://supernaut.info/2015/01/szepmuveszeti-muzeum-1-italian-painting-1250-1800, number 11, reproduced below:

I think what Bellosi is drawing attention to, here and in the preceding, is the beards. In this regard the Catalog has some other beards worth looking at, a Benedict and a St. Peter:




Another point of comparison, this one with the Jack of Coins in particular, is the elongated hat pointing forward to shade the face, which we see again in two other cassone side-panels, below:


FIORINI'S ESSAY

In her case I am going to provide a link to each pair of facing pages, as they appear in The Playing Card (vol 35, no. 1) with her illustrations, followed by that pair of pages in translation, repeating the process until the end of the article. I will not add my own comments, as I have said enough already. The English-language abstract and translation of the title were done by Thierry Depaulis, editor of the journal; for convenience, I include them here, in italics. In the footnotes, the titles of works in Italian are translated here for the convenience of the reader. Consult the original for the actual reference.

CRISTINA FIORINI

I tarocchi della Collezione Rothschild al Louvre: nuove proposte di lettura


Pp. 52-53 here

The Tarot Cards of the Rothschild Collection in the Louvre: New Hypotheses

About the author: Cristina Fiorini is studying art history and she specialises in the studi of early illuminated tarot cards. She devoted her MA thesis to the lesser known Rothschild Tarots (kepi in the Louvre) and her conclusions bring a lot of fresh ideas about them. Cristina Fiorini's remarkable thesis was awarded the "Gaetano Cozzi" Grant of the Fondazione Benetton for 2002-2003. The present article is a summary of her work.

English abstract

Eight illuminated Tarot cards - Emperor, king and jack of Coins, king, queen, cavalier and jack ofBatons, queen of Swords - are in the Graphic Department ofthe Musée du Louvre as part ofthe Urge collection of eariy prints and drawings bequeathed by Edmond de Rothschild. A cavalier of Swords, in the Museo Civico of Bassano del Grappa (Italia), bélongs to the same set. Until WWII these cards were thought to be Venetian. They were then attributed to the Lombard school, but in 1967 Robert Klein suggested to look at other centres. Lastly, in the I980s, they were considered to be Ferrarese, aithough in 1985 art historian Luciano Bellosi had assigned the Rothschild-Bassano Tarots to the Florentine pointer Giovanni di Marco, also known as Giovanni del Ponte (1385-1437).

This proved to be a good lead. Indeed the cards show many traits that are typical of the Fiorentine manner: the drawing is graceful and lively, the sculptural volumes remind the eariy Fiorentine attempts in sculpture; also the ridili/ ornamented decor reflects the women's fashion of the 1420s in Florence. In other words, the Rothschild-Bassano Tarots are good examples of the Florentine art, and are particularly close in style to the ubiquitous cassoni (painted diesis). Interestingly we know that Giovanni di Marco did paint some cassoni. Comparisons between late works by Giovanni and the Rothschild-Bassano cards show many similarities. Furthermore in his celebrated Vite Vasari says he owned a drawing by Giovanni di Marco that represented a "St. George on horse killing a serpent", a design that strongly reminds the Rothschild cavalier of Batons. But there is more: the Emperor holds a large gold coin with fìeur-de-lis which is nothing else than a Fiorentine fiorili, the vcry symbol of Florence's economic and financial power.

The Rothschild-Bassano Tarots also have another link with Florentine cards, namely with the so-called Rosenwald sheets in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., that are considered as a "proto-Minchiate". There are striking similarities in shape and detail - though noi in style - between the hand-painted cards and the woodblock-printed trumps and courts.

The tortoise shells that are visible on the king and queen of Batons, a classic symbol of femmine fertility, are perhaps reminiscent of a wedding. Here one thinks of Bartolomeo
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d'Ugho degli Alessandri and Costanza de' Bardi's marriage (1422), because Costanza's niece, Barione de' Bardi, is known to have connnissioned Giovanni di Marco to paint two chests for this very occasion.

Assigning the Rothschild-Bassano cards a date around 1420 is putting them in first place in the history of the Tarot. So far we know of no cards of such an eariy date. This would also mean that Florence might have been the craddle of the Tarot. Of course this raises many questious, particularly that of the place of the painting of the so-called Charles VI Tarot cards and of those in the Castello Ursino in Catania (Sicily) and in the Cary Collection in the Yale University Library ("Este-Aragon" cards). Because of the many similarities with the Rothschild-Bassano Tarots a Fiorentine origin for these three sets cannot be ruled out. The presence of Este emblems (on the Catania cards) and coats of arms (on the Cary "Este-Aragon" cards) is no objection. The cards might well have been painted by a Fiorentine artist too. (Thierry Depaulis)


In the panorama of ancient illuminated tarots, an important place belongs to the fragmentary series preserved in the Rothschild Collection of the Louvre, from the collection of prints of the Genoese count Giacomo Durazzo (1717-1794) (1). It consists of eight cards, embellished with a gold background,
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1. On Giacomo Durazzo see E. Podesta, Giacomo Durazzo by the Genoese citizen of Europe, Ovada, 1992.
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Pp. 54-55 here

stamped with flowering branches, representing the Emperor, the King and Page of Coins, the King, Queen, Knight and Page of Batons, and the Queen of Swords. To these must be added - for obvious stylistic affinities and the identical treatment of the edges and the background - also the Knight of Swords of the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa, originally part of the collection of prints of the Remondini family, celebrated popular Venetian typographers and printers of the eighteenth century (2).

Despite being specimens painted in tempera  (3), the nine cards were classified as woodcuts as far back as the eighteenth century. The fact is extremely unusual, it might be interpreted in the light of the eighteenth-century debate on the origin of printing arose following the publication (1760) of a document attesting to the fifteenth century Nordic origin of figurative printing. From that moment, in fact, began
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2. On the Remondini family cf. M. Infelice, Remondini Bassano: press and industry in the Veneto region of Settecento, Bassano del Grappa. 1980.
3. I have been able personally to verify the techniques of the cards, which do not show any trace of incision, through the courtesy of Pascal Torres, curator of the Cabinet Rothschild. Thanks for the valuable advice of Alberto Milano and Thierry Depaulis, who, after a recent inspection of the collection of the Louvre, has kindly confirmed my hypothesis.

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the era of the most active amateur research aimed at renewing, with findings of prints, the precedence of the the northern Italian incunabula, and to take possession of as many specimens as possible to enter into valuable collection. Already in the seventies of the eighteenth century it was possible to draw up an initial summary of the steps and uses of wood production of European origin, in which however the Italian continued to appear as absent, perhaps it was the lack of Italian finds the reason that prompted unscrupulous merchants to spread the market passed off as ancient works in printed form: in this sense, well explain the presence of the Rothschild cards in the Durres-Remondini collections of prints, where they appear as the first examples of Italian fifteenth century woodcuts.

Critical success

The first mention of the cards goes back to Lanzi, who combines the manner of the Venetian painter of Jacobello Fiore (4); this was followed by interventions of Singer, Millin,  Peignot, Cicognara (also inclined to a Venetian ascription of cards) and Chatto (5). Duchesne, Boiteau and Passavant consider the old Durres series and the so-called Tarot of Charles VI in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris parts of a single deck (6), while Gheno and Lozzi (7), followed subsequently by Hind (8), cite the first deck of the Louvre in relation to the Knight of Swords of Bassano, identifying the author as a Venetian artist.

Noticing a certain kinship between the eight Rothschild cards, the Rothschild-Correr number cards and the fragmentary deck of the University Library of Turin, Schrciber ascribes all three series to a single artist, active in the last two decades of the fifteenth century. (9) After a long silence from the critics, the deck is newly
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4. L. Lanzi, History of Painting in Italy from the Risorgimento of the fine arts since to the end of the eighteenth century, edited by M. Cappucci, Florence, 1968 (1st ed. 1795-1796), p. 76.
5. S. Weller Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards, London, 1816. pp. 105-106, E. Millin, Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts. Paris, 1806, p. 54: ld. Voyage en Savoie, Piemont, a Nice et Gènes, Paris, 1816, p. 245-246: G. Peignot, Recherches sur les littéraires historiques et des danses des morts et sur l’origine des cartes a jouer, Dijon, 1826. pp. 282-283, note 2; L. Cicognara, Memoirs payable to the history of intaglio printing, Prato, 1831, pp. 160-161, 184; W.A. Chatto, Origin and History of Playing Cards, London, 1848, pp. 229-230.
6. Duchesne Aine, “Observations sur les cartes à jouer, Paris, 1837 (cited in Chatto, 1848, p. 229), P. Boiteau d’Ambly, Les Cartes a jouer et la cartomancie. Paris, 1854, p. 58; J.D. Passavant, Le Peintre-graveur, Leipzig, 1860, p. 9.
7. A. Gheno, “Of old woodcut playing cards existing in the Civic Museum of Bassano”, The Bibliophile, 7, 1890, p. 4. C. Lozzi, "Still playing the old cards", The Bibliophile, 1 November-December 1890, pp. 181-182.
8. A.M. Hind. An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, with a Detailed Survey of Work Done in the Fifteenth century, London, 1963 (1st ed. 1935), p. 85.
9. W.L. Schreiber, Die altestcn Spielkarten und die auf Kartenspiel Bezug auf das des habenden Urkunden des 14 und 15 Jahrhunderts, Strasbourg, 1937, pp. 102-104.

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Pp. 56-57 here


taken into consideration by Puppi, for whom it approaches the Lombard manner of Bonifacio Bembo and his workshop, identifying the same stylistic affinities with the tarot of the Castello Ursino of Catania (10). In agreement with the studies highlighting its affinity with the series of Catania, Klein proposes an approach with the Tarot Charles VI and the pack at Turin. (11) Hoffmann and Jean-Richard assign the cards to a Northern Italian painter of the late fifteenth century (12), Boussel just speaks of an Italian artist of the fifteenth century (13), while Kaplan offers a dating between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century (14). Deduced work of an artist of Ferrara of the  second half of the fifteenth century by Dummett and Decker (15), the cards are put again in relation to the series of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Catania and
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10. L. Puppi , About Bonifacio Bembo and his workshop, in Arte Lombarda, 1959, pp . 247-248 .
11. R. Klein, Les tarots enluminés du XVème siecle (L’Oeil, 145. 1967), p. 52.
12. D. Hoffmann, Die Welt der Spielkarte, l, in Kulturgeschichte, Munich 1972 (trad. franc. Le Monde
de la carte à jouer Leipzig, 1972, pp. 18, 66), P. Jean- Richard, Les incunables de la collection Edmond de Rothschild, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1974. pp. 27-28.
13. P. Boussel, Futurologues conjecturistes et d'autrefois, Nouvelles Total, 1974, pp. 8-9.
14. S.R. Kaplan, The Encyclopcdia of Tarot, New York, 1979 pp. 120-122.
15. M. Dummett, The Game of Tarot, London, 1980, pp. 69, 75; R. Decker, Early Tarots: Copies and Counterparts, The Playing-Card, IX, 1, August 1989, p. 28-30.

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Turin by Mulazzani, who also adds to the list the pack preserved in the Cary Collection of Yale (16). In the catalog of Sotheby's sale of 6 December 1983 the Rothschild-Bassano cards are dated 1470 and associated with the twenty-three Rothschild numeral cards (17). The following year, Depaulis, while noting similarities with theTarot of Charles VI, shows, with respect to the latter, the different technical and greater sophistication executed in the Series, in his opinion dated to the end of the fifteenth century (18). Considered the work of an artist of Lombardy by Borea (19) and briefly cited by Hoffmann (20), the fragmentary pack is then analyzed by Bellosi, who noted stylistic similarities with the style of the Florentine painter Giovanni di Marco, better known as Giovanni da Ponte (21). The hypothesis is decidedly discarded by Algeri (22), followed by Marsili, Hens, Dummett, and Ortalli (23), who put the cards into the artistic context of Ferrara of the second half of the fifteenth century. Finally there is the recent contribution of Luberti on the tarot of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, but nothing new emerges. (24).

The Florentinity of the Series

The Ferrarese orientation of most recent criticism is essentially based on two factors: on the one hand, the presence in the Rothschild-Bassano series, of compositional and decorative styles, returning also in packs of Castel Ursino and New Haven, retaining a Ferrarese matrix by the presence, on some cards, of Este insignia, and second, the existence of documentary evidence attesting to the early spread of the game of tarot at the court of Ferrara. There are without doubt significant items, but not certain
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16. G. Mulazzani. The Visconti Tarot and Bonifacio Bembo, Pack of Yale, Milan, 1981, p. 98.
17. Catalogue of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures to be sold with the Gospels of Henry the Lion, Sotheby's, Tuesday, December 6, 1983 .
18. Tarot, Jeu et magie, exhibition catalog (Paris. Bibliothèque Nationale), edited by T. Depaulis, Paris, 1984, pp. 38,41.
19. E. Borea. Regarding the fortune of ancient woodcuts, Italian woodcuts in the fifteenth century of Ravenna and other places, exhibition catalog (Rome, national Cabinet of Drawings and prints), Ravenna, 1987, p. 21.
20. D. Hoffmann. Expositions à Paris, Nouvelles de l'Estampe, March 1989, 79. p. 39.
21. L. Bellosi, A drawing by Giovanni del Ponte and some tarot cards. Art Bulletin, 1985, 30, pp. 27-35 (republished in Like a meadow flower, Studies in late Gothic art, Milan, p. 200-201).
22, Algieri, A game for the courts: the illuminated tarots, in Cards of the Court, Tarot, Game and Magic at the Este court, exhibition catalog (Ferrara, Este Castle), edited by G Berti and A. Vitali, Bologna, 1987. pp. 21, 25, 38.
23.  P. Marsili, in Tarot, Cards of fate, Faenza, 1988, p. 24: HH Hens, Tarot Cards: Ein Spiel mit Bildern in Italien des 15 Jahrhunderts, in Mit Gluck und Vcrstand, exhibition catalog (Stadtisches Musami Scliloss Rlicvdt) edited by C. Zangs and H. Hollander, Aachen, 1994, p.254: M. Dummett, The world and the angel, Naples. 1993, p. 89, G. Ortalli, The prince and the playing cards, The Este family and the role of the courts at the time of the Kartenspiel-lnvasion, Ludica, 2, 1996. p. 194.
24. R. Luberti, Of the illuminated triumphs of the fifteenth century and printed tarot cards of the XVI, Ludica, 9, 2003m pp. 182-183.

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pp. 58-59 here

enough to assign the same ambit also to the tarot in question, characterized by a style that is not suited to the Ferrarese-Emilian pictorial context of the middle of the fifteenth century; it compares very well with the late Gothic Florentine art of the beginning of the century.

This is evidenced, for example, in the refined and courteous feeling, enhanced by the gold background, that characterizes all the personnages, and the descriptive vivacity which characterizes the Knights of Swords and Batons, the harmonious grace of the Page of Batons; the predilection for almost sculptural volumes emerging beneath the elegant clothing of the enthroned figures, which remind us of the environment of the first Florentine sculptural experience (25); the floral patterns of the clothes, which echo the exuberance of fifteenth-century Florentine fashion, and the calligraphy of the beards and hair, and also the women's hairstyles, which seem to reflect closely the practice attested in the Tuscan capital in the early decades of the century, to make artificially high foreheads using depilatory techniques (26).

These features, easily documentable throughout Tuscan painting of the first half of the fifteenth century, to me seem a particularly happy production of birth trays and stained chests that had much fortune in the Tuscan and Florentine ambit during the fifteenth and sixteenth century (27). The same Giovanni di Marco, (1385-1437) cited by Bellosi as a possible author of the Rothschild–Bassano, is mentioned in documents for some paintings on cassone carried out on behalf of Florentine nobles of the time (28). The fact is extremely interesting, and leads to considering a little closer this artist who, taking his first steps in the wake of the late-fourteenth-century tradition, felt immediately attracted by the novelty of the late Gothic language that will affect the generation of artists who were his contemporaries.

It is mainly the work of the third decade - that is, those years in which the gothicizing stimuli find their full expression (see, in particular, the dais of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, 1421, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest) - to reveal a surprising stylistic affinity with the tarot cards in question, which, moreover, do not seem to date more than the twenties of the century. The thick line that builds the figures, the lively sense of color and the wise use of highlights that volumetrically shape the drapery, as well as the way of depicting the beards and hair, are just a few of the points that are common to the style of Giovanni and that of the cards.
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25. See, for example, the statues of the four Evangelists (1415) executed for the facade of the Duomo of Florence by Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Lamberti and Ciuffagni.
26. See Levi Pisetzky, History of Costume in Italy, The fifteenth century, II, Milan, 1964, pp. 224, 288.
27. To realize this, just browse the vast repertoire of cassoni depicted in P. Schubring, Cassoni, Leipzig, 1923. The practice of making miniatures had to be quite congenial to the painter: the expedient of projecting the figures beyond the edges of the cards to free them from the reduced size of the image, for example, returns in a number of manuscripts, and relations with them are identified also in the decoration of the edges and in that the weblike floral background: 

28. C. Gamba, Giovanni dal Ponte. Ressegna d’Arte, IV, 12, 1904, pp. 177, 185-186.  Of cassoni definitely attributable to Giovanni di Marco only two have reached us: one preserved in the Cambó collection of the Prado with the seven "Virtues" and one, currently dispersed, depicting the "Triumph of Fame."
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Among the various comparisons proposed by Bellosi and investigated by me elsewhere (29), one's particular attention is attracted between the Knight of Batons of the Rothschild and the St. George on horseback of the Kress triptych at Columbia, for the typological affinity of the two depictions (30). The link between the two works could be further confirmed by the information that I found a passage in Vasari's Lives which claims to have a drawing by Giovanni di Marco depicting St George on horseback slaying a serpent: 
In our book of drawings by diverse ancients and moderns there is a drawing in watercolor by the hand of Giovanni, wherein is a St. George on horseback who is slaying the Dragon, and a skeleton, which bear witness to the method and manner that he had in drawing. (31) (http://members.efn.org/~acd/vite/VasariDalPonte.html
Although we must resign ourselves to the loss of the drawing, you might hypothesize that the above drawing was conceived as a model for more important work, then repeated, in short, both in the Rothschild card and the panel at Columbia.

Beyond the fact that Giovanni di Marco should be shown or not as the actual author of the series, what matters for the moment is to have delimited with more accuracy the likely area of origin of the cards. Other clues seem attributed to the Florentine context.

The most convincing is the currency which, supported by the Emperor, is easily identified in a golden florin for the presence of the inscribed lily in it (32). The symbol of the economic power of the Florentine florin might in some way to allude to the wealth of the buyer.

Another indicator of the probable origin of the Florentine cards could be identified in the shield a curious double valve, a Hispano-Moorish feature depicted on the back of the Knight of Swords. Easily documented in paintings by the Spanish master, not also in Italian: the only example I could find is represented by the Battle among Orientals preserved in the Museum of Altenburg, done by Gherardo Starnina. The artist in question made news of little interest; active in Florence after a long stay in Valencia, he was the main master of Giovanni di Marco, who may have been inspired by Starnina for the inclusion of this cultured reference.

Even the use of compositions in the rendering of the characters that come back, virtually identical, both in Rothschild series and in the later Rosenwald Tarot in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, of Florentine origin, appears to be of extreme interest. Notice, in particular, the similarities between the Rothschild Emperor and Rosenwald Empress and between the Rothschild King of Batons and the
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29. C. Fiorini, New research on fifteenth century tarocchi of the Rothschild Collection at the Louvre. Milan, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Theses specializing in art history,  2003-2004, pp. 57-66.
30. Bellosi, 1985, p. 35.
31. G Vasari, Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors, and architexts, 1550-1567, II, Rome, 1991, pp. 223-224.
32. I thank Thierry Depaulis for suggesting this hypothesis.

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Pp. 60-61 here

 

Emperor of the American series (the latter of which is quite similar to the figure of Fame painted by Giovanni di Marco on the chest depicting the Triumph of that virtue).

Also significant is the common presence at the top of the cards of the three-lobed arc, and the same for the flowers, depicted in the spandrels of the arches of the Parisian series, which also return in the later Florentine Minchiate 33. These are details of course, but such analogies can all be indicative of common area of origin of the cards (Florentine to be precise), a field in which circulation of reference models is well documented since the Middle Ages.

The symbol of the turtle


But for what occasion was the valuable series in the Louvre conceived?

An interesting insight could be offered in the form of the tortoise shells depicted on the shoulders of the King and Queen of Batons, to be interpreted not
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33. The Reference to the game of Minchiate, until some time ago considered purely sixteenth century, acquires even more weight if you take into account some literary and documentary evidence that dates back to the fifteenth century. See F. Pratesi, Tarot in Florence in the XVIth century: its difusion from literary sources, The Playing-Card, XVI, 3, February 1988, p. 78-83.
34. If the intent was the celebration of a particular family, in fact, the painter would not have depicted only the carapace, but the entire body of the animal. I thank Philipe Palasi for the clarification he gave me about this.

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pp. 62-63 here

so much an heraldic key (34) as an allegorical one. [translator note: footnote on previous page]

The symbol of the turtle is full of meanings, mostly of a positive character. In the ancient world, for example, the animal was considered a symbol of fertility and therefore sacred to Aphrodite; at the same time, with the long duration of its life, it was also considered a symbol of health, vitality and immortality. According to Plutarch it represented the model of feminine confidence, while according to Aesop it symbolized constancy. Given the numerous references to feminine virtues, the tortoise could indicate that the recipient of the cards was a woman, perhaps a young bride, given the custom, in fifteenth-century aristocratic society, to commission such precious Tarot decks as wedding gifts. The turtle, in this case, summarizes the wish that the woman would become the generatrix of numerous offspring (symbolizing fertility) is a warning to guard the virtues of reserve, prudence and constancy that befits a good wife.

Now, the most important marriages in Florence in the early decades of the fifteenthcentury, the sources noted in particular that between Cosimo de' Medici and the Countess de' Bardi (ca 1415) and that between Bartolomeo d’Ugho Alessandri and Constance de' Bardi (1422). It is on this last wedding I would like to focus particular attention, not only because the style of the cards seems oriented, as noted earlier, to the twenties of the century, but especially since the uncle of Constance, Hilarion de' Bardi, is mentioned in a document as having commissioned Giovanni Marco, on the occasion of this marriage, two painted chests.(35) This notice is of extreme interest, since it may at this point support that Giovanni, an artist esteemed by the Bardi family, was asked not only to decorate the two wedding chests, but also to execute the tarot deck. In this way, even the presence of the gold florin depicted between the hands of the Emperor acquires a precise celebratory meaning in the de' Bardi family, one of the richest banking families in Florence.

Some final thoughts

The early date proposed in this brief exposure gives the Rothschild - Bassano series a role of paramount importance, since, in the present state of research, we do not possess tarot decks so old; it also allows one to locate in Florence the original home of the game of Tarot, which presents itself as the oldest expression of that tradition of card games attested in documents of the Tuscan capital, since the seventies of the fourteenth century. Pratesi cites an allowance of the City of Florence of 10 December 1450 which includes the triumphs in a list of allowed card games: that suggests that its spread was already established by that time (36). Another clue to the possible origin of the Florentine game would also seem to be
____________
35. Gamba, 1984, pp. 185-186.
36. F Pratesi, "Carte da gioci a Firenze: il primo secolo (1377-1477)", The Playing Card XIX/1, 1990, pp. 1-17.
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represented by the same term Triumphs with which tarot cards were designated throughout the fifteenth century: it is in fact connected to the theme of the Triumphs, one of the favorite themes of the Florentine Renaissance, as well testified by the triumphal processions frequently organized by the de’ Medici family, which, inspired by the Petrarch's famous Triumphs, were so frequently executed in paintings, miniatures, wooden chests and birth trays in the Tuscan-Florentine area.

A proposal of this kind, of course, leaves open many questions, primarily ones concerning the place of execution of the Tarot of Charles VI, Castel Ursino, and New Haven; the affinity between these three decks and the Rothschild-Bassano series, in fact, would also assume a Florentine source. (37) The presence of Este insignia in the Catania tarota and those in New Haven, moreover, is not an objection to a hypothesis of this kind, since the commission of playing cards by the Este to Florentine artists has been documented since the early decades of the century (38).

The hypothesis should of course be tested and scrutinzed by means of more precise study (especially stylistic) of the various Tarot decks mentioned, thanks to which - as I hope - it may in the future achieve deeper certainty regarding the fascinating world of the ludus Triumphorum.
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37. In this regard an observation of Dummett’s (1993, p. 82-85) is worth mentioning, according to which the numbers on the Charles VI tarot would suggest just such a Florentine hand.
38. Emblematic, for example, is the case of Parisina d'Este, wife of Duke Nicholas III, who in October 1423 commissioned "uno paro de carte da VIII imperdori messe d’oro fino” [a pack of cards of VIII emperors made of pure gold] made in Florence. See A. Franceschini, Artisti a Ferrara in età umanistica e rinascimentale. Testimonianze archivistiche, I, from 1341 to 1471, Ferrara and Rome, 1993, p. 120.

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[Translator's addition: Websites:

http://jeannedepompadour.blogspot.com/2013/01/italian-gothic-1400-1500.html

http://www.pintoresfamosos.cl/obras/dal-ponte.htm

translation via Google Translate as corrected by Michael S. Howard]

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