74-79, Cards VI-VIII (Temperance, Love, Fortitude) (Moakley)

[p. 74; again, the images are from Dummett, but downloaded from Pinterest]

VI LA TEMPERANZA (Temperance)
The virtue of Temperance is shown in the usual Renaissance way, as a woman pouring a liquid from one urn into another. Temperance is the first of a group of four cards representing the triumphant arrival of Cupid. Temperance and Fortitude accompany the Car and the Lovers who are attacked by Cupid. Although Temperance is the first and Fortitude the last of this four-card group, we may imagine them in an actual triumph as riding on the car together. Temperance with her urns is a feminine symbol, and Fortitude with his club is masculine. The sexual symbolism involved was by no means unconscious, for it appears again in the suit-cards of the tarocchi. The rules of play show us that the suits of Cups and Coins were thought of as feminine; in them the common cards rank from Ace high down to Ten low, with proper feminine humility. It is the other way round with the masculine suits of Swords and Staves. In the minchiate this appears even more plainly: the suits of Cups and Coins have a lady instead of a page or squire.

[start p. 75]
NOTES LA TEMPERANZA
The idea that this is the first of a four-card group representing the car and its passengers is based on illustrations of actual triumphs such as those shown in Massena (Petrarque) and Schubring (Cassoni) and in Piero della Francesca's painting "The Triumph of Federigo of Urbino and his Wife Battista Sforza," where the Virtues ride on the two triumphal cars as I have imagined Temperance and Fortitude. Packs of minchiate, showing the ladies replacing the pages in the feminine suits, are to be found in museums having large collections of playing cards, and are shown in Hargrave (History). It was in the print collection of the Cooper Union in New York that I first noticed this feature of the minchiate.

[start p. 76]
VII IL CARRO (The Car)
Here is the triumphal car itself, driven by the same lady whom we see again in the next trump. It is drawn by two spirited winged white horses who seem proud of their task. In modern packs the Car follows the card of L'Amore, but in all the fifteenth-century lists it precedes it. The citizens of Milan wanted Francesco Sforza to make his solemn entry as their Duke in a triumphal car such as this. But he rejected the idea as a "kingly superstition." He had already enjoyed a spontaneous triumph of a different kind, when he entered Milan informally to respond to the invitation to become Duke. The joyous citizens pressed so close around him that it seemed as if they were carrying him through the city, horse and all. They went with him into the cathedral which the Milanese have always loved so much, still pressing so close that he had to pray on horseback. Triumphal cars still are an important feature of Italian festivals. In Florence, on Holy Saturday, one of these big cars is filled with fireworks and drawn by white oxen to the Duomo. While the Gloria is sung, an artificial dove runs along a wire to the car, carrying a spark of the new fire from the altar to set off the fireworks.

NOTES IL CARRO
For Sforza's refusal of a triumphal entry see Ady (History) p 65 and Litta (Famiglie) I fasc 1, 2d pl of Sforza medals. For the informal triumph earlier see Ady p 60. For the car at Florence see Toor (Festivals) p 245

[start p. 77]
VIII L'AMORE (Love, The Lovers)
Blindfolded Cupid, standing on a pedestal to show that he is master of the situation, threatens with his darts the man and woman who stand before him. The interest they feel in each other is charmingly evident on their faces and in their attitudes. It is typical of the Milanese spirit that the card shows all the charm and none of the silliness of the courtly love tradition, in which the lover languishes and the lady's cold refusal is admired. The lovers here are probably Francesco Sforza and his young bride, Bianca Maria Visconti. The bride's dress bears the heraldic device of the Visconti sun, and the bridegroom's a design which suggests the Sforza dragon's webbed wings. In another set of tarocchi owned by either the Visconti or the Sforza family, this card has in the background a series of shields, on which the Visconti serpent alternates with the cross of Savoy. The lovers in that set would be either Filippo Maria Visconti and Bianca Maria of Savoy, or Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Bona of Savoy. In any case, it is said that the woman pictured is the same lady who drives the car of the seventh trump in that set.

NOTES L'AMORE
For the heraldic devices on the dress of bride and groom see Litta (Famiglie), fascicles for the Sforza and Visconti families. The Visconti devices appear in great profusion in the Ufiziolo illuminated for Filippo Maria Visconti. For the card in which the bride is a lady of Savoy see Steele (Notice) p 190. The suggestion that she could be Bona of Savoy is mine alone, based on a genealogical table showing that she married Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Steele refutes Count Cicognara's statement that she is another bride of Filippo Maria's than the lady of Savoy. The question as to why Cupid is blindfolded is answered by Panofsky (Studies p 95ff) and Wind (Pagan p 56). One says it is because love is inferior to the intellect, and the other that it is because love is superior.

[start p. 78]
IX LA FORTEZZA. (Fortitude)
The virtue of Fortitude is here as a companion of the Car and of Love, balancing the virtue of Temperance which preceded those two cards. There are three ways in which Fortitude was usually shown, of which this is one. Another appears in the minchiate trumps: a woman holding a broken column. A third form, which we find in the modern tarot of Marseilles, is a woman closing a lion's jaws. A modern Swiss tarot pack, which has Juno and Jupiter instead of the Popess and Pope, like this one has a Hercules fighting a lion with a club. Hercules wears a dark blue tunic with a red scarf, sleeves, and stockings. His club is green with touches of gold. It is possible that as Ercolino (Little Hercules) he became the Arlecchino (Harlequin) of the later commedia dell'arte. In one of the comedies for Arlecchino there are lines about Cupid which could have originally been a carnival song for Ercolino to sing as he rode on the triumphal car. This is the last card in the group showing the triumph of Cupid. Fortune comes next, between the triumph of Cupid and the triumph of Death, as she dispenses joy and sorrow with the turn of her wheel.

NOTES LA FORTEZZA
The allegorical figures representing the cardinal virtues are some of the most usual in fifteenth-century art. They appear in tapestries, on tombs, and in pictures of triumphal processions, such as the "Triumph of Federigo of Urbino and Battista Sforza his Wife," by Piero della Francesca, where the cardinal Virtues sit on Federigo's triumphal car, and the theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) on his wife's. An attentive walk through the Renaissance department of any museum will reveal at least one instance of the Virtues.

[start p. 79]
For the suggestion that Hercules and Harlequin are connected see Enci spett, art "Arlecchino," col go4. However, if Toschi (Origini, p 199) is correct in identifying Arlecchino with the Alichino who appeared in 1276 in Adam de la Halle's Jeu de la feuille, Arlecchino cannot have grown out of the tarocco Ercolino.

The lines for Arlecchino which might have been sung from Cupid's car are quoted in Enci spett, art "Arlecchino," col 908-909. They were written by Giorgio Maria Raparino, and begin: "Ora qua nostro Cupido / non minor del Dio di Cnido. . . ."

Arlecchino and Bagattino are both mentioned in a jingle by Raparini which enumerates twenty-four Carnival clowns: "Arlecchino, Truffaldino, / sia Pasquino, Tabarrino, / Tortellino, Naccherino, / Gradellino, Mezzetino, / Polpettino, Nespolino, / Bertolino, Fagiolino, / Trappolino, Zaccagnino, Trivellino, Traccagnino, Passerino, Bagattino, / Bagolino, Temellino, / Fagottino, Pedrolina, / Frittellino, Tabacchino." (Enci spett, art "Arlecchino," col 909.)

I BASTONI (Staves)
Next in the procession is the suit of Staves. At first sight it seems only to herald the Triumph of Fortune, but the Carnival crowd, eager to find a ribald meaning, will pair Staves and Cups in the same way as they paired the urns of Temperance and the club of Fortitude. So the Staves not only herald Fortune, they are also the followers of the Triumph of Love. Like the Kings and Queens of the other suits, those of the suit of Staves bear the same regal scepter as the Carnival King, the Emperor, and the Empress. Several of the suit cards bear the proud Visconti motto, "A bon droyt." The crossed legs of the King of Staves may be intended to suggest the Greek letter Chi. The legs of the King of Coins are similarly crossed. It may be fanciful to suggest that the letter Chi was meant to stand for "chrysos," the Greek word for gold. The equation of staves and coins as both meaning gold would, in this ribald context, suggest the old, old equation of gold and faeces.

[start p. 80]
NOTES I BASTONI
Staves is a masculine suit; the Ten is highest of the number cards.

Note that the tack-hole in the Two of Staves is at the bottom, showing that it must have been hung upside down.

[Scan of pp. 74-75 (Temperanza and notes): https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UE9uEvqTEB8/ ... ge-004.jpg

Scan of pp. 76-77 (Carro, Amore and notes): https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uRNUo3cg8Z0/ ... ge-005.jpg

Scan of pp. 78-79 (Fortezza, Bastoni and notes): https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SNycMsenwcg/ ... ge-006.jpg]