Playing Cards

15th century

Italian 15th Century

Associated Names
This is a print that shows a set of twenty-four playing cards arranged in three horizontal rows of eight. Each card is decorated with traditional and symbolic imagery, such as crowns, flowers, swords, and people dressed in medieval attire, including some humans and some centaurs. From these images, four symbols seem to repeat several times: swords, staffs, goblets, and round plates. The cards in the bottom row all show different amounts of goblet-like shapes, from two to nine. The designs of the cards have been printed in black ink on off-white paper that is slightly damaged and discolored at the top, with the top-right image only partially visible.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 30 × 44.1 cm (11 13/16 × 17 3/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1951.16.6


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Martin Breslauer, London); purchased 1951 by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA ( Lugt 1932d); gift to NGA, 1951.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1960

  • The Cardboard Court: Playing Cards through History, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD, 1960.

1984

  • Tarot, Jeu et Magie, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1984-1985, no. 27.

1987

  • I Tarocchi: le carte di corte: gioco e magia alla corte degli estensi, Castello Estense, Ferrara, 1987-1988, no. 17, detail repro.

2016

  • The World in Play: Luxury Cards, 1430-1540, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016, no 9.

Bibliography

1987

  • Berti and Vitali, I TAROCCHI, Amministrazione Provinciale di Ferrara, 1987, no.17.

Wikidata ID

Q65218405

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