Playing Cards

15th century

Printed in black ink on tan paper, twenty-four playing cards are arranged in three rows of eight that fill the horizontal sheet of this woodcut. Most of the cards in the middle and lower rows have Roman numerals in or near the upper left corner. The numbers count down from twelve, and are reversed. Each card in the top row shows a celestial entity or an imaginary being. The first card on the left shows an angel blowing a horn while hovering over a long horizontal box in which two people stand. Other cards have a stylized sun with a face, a crumbling stone tower on fire, or a man with horns and chicken feet, wearing an animal skin and holding a trident. The cards in the middle and bottom rows each feature a man or woman, many wearing crowns or headdresses, and long gowns. The only exception is one to the far right of the middle row, which shows a blindfolded, winged angel about to shoot an arrow into a woman as a man kneels opposite her. Other cards on that row include a balding, bearded man leaning on crutches; a man wearing a crown standing in a cart drawn by two horses as he holds an orb and sword; or a woman in a long gown embracing a column. The bottom row begins with a wide-eyed person wearing a cone-shaped crown decorated by two rows of zigzags. Others show men or women wearing crowns and holding orbs and scepters, a man dressed as a jester, or a man holding a sword. There are losses on the card to the left in the center row, so that image is incomplete.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 29.1 × 43.5 cm (11 7/16 × 17 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1951.16.7


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.

2009

  • The Tarot: Art, History, and Symbolism, The Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, 2009-2010.

Bibliography

1987

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

Wikidata ID

Q65218408


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