Re: The Sun
Posted: 09 Oct 2013, 15:54
Hi, Marco,
As has been noted many times, any book with a great many subjects (like Dante's Divine Comedy) will have numerous subjects in common with the trumps. Likewise, any large collection of images will have some in common. This is why picture books and books with many descriptive passages served as model books or pattern books for later artists. About half the trump subjects seem to be readily identifiable in such an astrological text.
Seznec's Survival of the Pagan Gods traces the way in which books like Petrarch's Africa could be a conduit for transmission of pictorial information. These astrological books, with many simplified images, would be a great source of stock figures. Ross' Victor Belli find from a few years ago is a wonderful example of how a particular design might be copied. For those who know the source and its associations, the image carries allusions of significance.
As you point out, another notable iconographic observation to be made from browsing those images is that the wall motif is apparently a common background. In the pervasively-occultist environment of a Tarot discussion, every feature must be hyper-interpreted, so it is difficult to let go of something. However, things like ground, sky, and a wall, may not be secret codes but merely conventional backdrops.
Thanks very much.
Best regards,
Michael
Thanks -- really nice manuscript.Marco wrote:Thanks to a post on ATF, I found this great 1491 astrological manuscript, in which many illustrations feature the brick wall background that appears in a few Sun cards.
As has been noted many times, any book with a great many subjects (like Dante's Divine Comedy) will have numerous subjects in common with the trumps. Likewise, any large collection of images will have some in common. This is why picture books and books with many descriptive passages served as model books or pattern books for later artists. About half the trump subjects seem to be readily identifiable in such an astrological text.
Seznec's Survival of the Pagan Gods traces the way in which books like Petrarch's Africa could be a conduit for transmission of pictorial information. These astrological books, with many simplified images, would be a great source of stock figures. Ross' Victor Belli find from a few years ago is a wonderful example of how a particular design might be copied. For those who know the source and its associations, the image carries allusions of significance.
As you point out, another notable iconographic observation to be made from browsing those images is that the wall motif is apparently a common background. In the pervasively-occultist environment of a Tarot discussion, every feature must be hyper-interpreted, so it is difficult to let go of something. However, things like ground, sky, and a wall, may not be secret codes but merely conventional backdrops.
Fantastic -- great quote.Marco wrote:“In these tarot cards, various hieroglyphs and heavenly signs are represented. Each of them has its number, from 1 to 35, and the last five, until 40, are not numbered, but their ordering is understood from the figures printed on them. The order is: the Star, the Moon, the Sun, the World and the Trumpets, which is the highest and would be number 40. The allegory is that, as the Stars are won by the light of the Moon, and the light of the Moon by that of the Sun, in the same way the World is greater than the Sun, and Fame, represented by the Trumpets, is more valuable than the World; so much so that a man, after having exited the World, continues to live in it thanks to his Fame, when he has accomplished some glorious deed.
Similarly, Petrarch in 'The Triumphs' does something like a game; because Love is won by Chastity, Chastity by Death, Death by fame, and Fame by Divinity, which reigns forever.”
Thanks very much.
Best regards,
Michael