Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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There has been a seemingly fruitless look for 14, 16 or 21/22 trump subjects taken from the Florentine public ritual displays in edifici, etc. Might the contrary be true, that trionfi trump subjects might have decorated an edifici, or rather in this case, the livery of a Florentine noble parading around as a knight in a joust? The date in question is late, 12 years after the Ferrara reference to a trionfi deck of 70 cards, but the same logic would hold true, especially for the place of the ur-tarot: that an original shorter deck of 14 trumps survived and overlapped the 22 trump deck for a period of time (before being discarded altogether for the newer more fashionable decks of 22 trumps and/or minchiate?). On to the reference, which is in Alison Wright, The Pollaiuolo Brothers: The Arts of Florence and Rome, 2005: 54-55.

The decoration in question was part of a commission to the Pollaiuolo for pageant armor for the 7 February 1469 joust (famously won by Lorenzo de Medici and celebrated in poem by Luigi Pulci). The commissioner of the pageant armor was Benedetto d’Antonio Salutati, nephew of the famous Florentine Chancellor Coluccio Salutati, and Benedetto's father had been a director of the Roman branch of the Medici bank; in other words, he was part of the de’Medici inner circle. Benedetto wore violet livery and his first page carried a banner showing a semi-nude veiled woman holding a rayed orb with ‘leafy branches strewn about’ (laurel, in honor of Lorenzo, who was predetermined to win the joust?); his 2nd page held a gilt helmet crowned with a golden woman carrying a blue orb presumably representing the same figure (the three must have formed a standard military subunit of a 3 person lance, although they were accompanied by several other retainers; when fully "assembled" Benedetto would have been seen holding the banner with veiled woman as well as a helmet with the same woman, both holding an orb, either gold or blue - a reference to the Medici palle, inclusive of the blue one with fleur di lys?). Now for the curious detail:
Benedetto Salutati’s account book includes detailed payments for silverwork for various horse trappings and some of these can be grouped together. For example, the caparison of his horse was hung with bells and decorated with half-relief motifs of fruit, poppy heads, pine cones and quinces whereas the harness of the other two ‘corsieri’ carried gilded silver decorations in a great diversity of forms including rosettes, heads of young men and women, 10 historiated reliefs, 14 ‘figures’, 4 ‘half tondi’ and lions, as well as gilded and enameled decorations for the head piece of the page’s horse. (ibid, 55)
That is a lot of detail to squeeze on to the caparison and harnesses of even two horses, and the matter is clouded as either the account book or Wright do not divide the subjects of the pages into two (the two pages' horses together are just differentiated from Benedetto's horse trappings). As for the motifs....

The 'young men and women' are simply the prey of Venus and Cupid. ‘Historiated’ usually refers to the elaborate capitalized letter one finds in manuscripts, so perhaps this was part of a motto and abbreviated as one finds on classical coins and contemporary medals (with ten words, each first letter embossed via padded stitching to show historiated in 'relief'?)? Who knows what the tondi were - typical busts emerging from circles (perhaps cupids, referring to his love of the mysterious woman on his helm?) The lions may refer to the Marzocco as well as to the Salutati coat of arms, featuring a vertical feline forearm capped by a fleur di lys (his stemma is not violet so not sure why that was the color of his livery, unless Roman imperial purple was implied, somehow making him a classical knight). Salutati's stemma from the tomb of Antonio de Salutati: Azure field with a lion's paw holding a fleur-de-lys in chief between two stars of 8 points (Santa Croce, Florence - where all jousts were held, at least the well-known ones of 1459, attended by Galeazzo Sforza, this 1469 one, and the 1475 one won by Lorenzo's brother, Giuliano, and celebrated in poem by Poliziano):
Image

And then we are left with the 14 ‘figures’ – with no explanation. Perhaps it was like dal Ponte's cassone with the virtues, but with 7 figures on one side of the horse and 7 more on the other? Although a horse is obviously much longer than a cassone and could have shown 14 subjects on just one side and even larger (and Ponte's 7 virtues and 7 exempli are all on a single cassone face). At all events, just another tantalizing scrap of information.

Phaeded

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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Phaeded wrote:
‘Historiated’ usually refers to the elaborate capitalized letter one finds in manuscripts, so perhaps this was part of a motto and abbreviated as one finds on classical coins and contemporary medals (with ten words, each first letter embossed via padded stitching to show historiated in 'relief'?)?
That word "historiated" came up in relation to cassoni, too. In my introduction to my translation of Franco's note, I tried to explain the word based on internet definitions. I said:
The word is defined in relation to the illustrations that occur at the initial letters of illuminated manuscripts that also relate in some way to the text that follows, illustrating some aspect of it. An historiated cassone would in some way be analogous to that. Whether it necessarily refers to a text (what text?), or maybe just an idea, or has to tell a story, I do not know. I wonder if tarot cards could be considered "historiated"?
I asked Franco about it, and he wrote back (as I reported at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1092&p=17628&hilit ... ted#p17628):
The text or any writing is never involved. Istoriare means to decorate with historical motifs, illustrations of important events of the past. The meaning can in case be extended to any picture, not only of historical concern.
I hope that helps.

I have no idea what the "14 figures" could be. At least now you have suggested an alternative to the tarot figures, namely, 7 virtues and 7 exemplars. There is also the 7 virtues and 7 liberal arts, as one theory is that the two dal Ponte cassoni were members of a pair (cassoni were made in pairs). Or the 7 planets paired with the 7 virtues. Or the 7 ages of man (seen on the floor of the Siena Duomo around that time). Or 7 vices (as in Giotto). 7 was a popular number. . It also might have been 14 famous men and women, an expansion of Castagna's 9. Or 14 famous men, period. Or the 12 labors of Hercules plus 1 for his infancy (playing with snakes) and 1 for his death. 12 Olympians plus the 2 grandparents. You once asked what else the "14 figures" of Ferrara could be except the tarot figures. Well, here are some suggestions.

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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mikeh wrote:
The text or any writing is never involved. Istoriare means to decorate with historical motifs, illustrations of important events of the past. The meaning can in case be extended to any picture, not only of historical concern.
I hope that helps.
Thanks Mike.

I too thought of the7 virtues and 7 exempli, but then thought the "young men and women" would have been the exempli. Also note there is a clear difference between the well-known cycle seven of allegorical virtues and then seven - not always consistent - historical exempli (so would virtues and exempli collectively be called 'figures' in the face of the famous number 7 and all of its cognates?). Even the word 'historiated' would refer to historical scenes with figure(s) - so there are 10 historical figures (or more) and then yet again another 7 exempli for the virtues?

All of this is reading ink splotches without more information, but I do find it interesting that Salutati was the nephew of Coluccio, succeeded to the Florentine chancellorship by fellow Aretine, Leonardo Bruni, who I link with the creation of the ur-tarot. The young Salutati would have at least been on the 'inside' of Medici political ambitions.

I've not really fleshed this idea out, but it seems that Bruni was basically envisioning an elite "Civic Knighthood" within the Parte Guelph, that would be at the political forefront of Florence's imperial ambitions to expand the state ('Libertas' was pure propaganda, for conquered states to live under the just laws of Florentine liberty, vs Milan or Naples). The highest ranking Florentine ambassadors were almost always knights, and equipped with orations from Bruni (or themselves if they were capable of it, like Ginozzo Manetti). My primary evidence are the works that Bruni wrote in the volgare, so that the Florentine elites capable of fulfilling knight/ambassadorships but could not read Latin, were easily coached along via his cultural program. See these two important studies by James Hankins:
Civic Knighthood in the early Renaissance: Leonardo Bruni's De militia (ca. 1420); pdf here:
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/hand ... sequence=1
and
Humanism in the vernacular: the case of Leonardo Bruni
; pdf here:
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/hand ... sequence=1

Although Bruni is mostly associated with Latin translations and works (especially his History of Florence), here are works written in Italian, notable for their ability to explain the tenets of the earlier De militia in the volgare:

Difesa del popolo di Firenze nella impresa di Lucca, (1431), (a whopping 64 MS survive, and this lays down the rhetoric for Florentine imperial aggrandizement, in this case the Luccan War, which nonetheless failed)
Oratione detta a Nicolo da Tolentino, (1433), (101 MS survive - second only to the vite, and this is yet another condottiere example, like Sforza (see below), whom Florentine knights were to emulate [although in reality just watch as commissioners during war, like Capponi]
Vite di Dante e del Petrarca (1436), (156 MS survive - Dante is to be emulated for participating in the battle of Campaldino, like a good citizen knight [leading both the active and contemplative life], but has his foil in Petrarch who was always prudent, even in exile, unlike Dante)
Lettera allo illustrissimo conte Francesco Sforza (1439), (13 MS survive, odd in that this flattering personal letter was considered a statement of how Florence beheld Sforza - such was the position of Bruni)
Oratione fatta pe’ chapitani della Parte Guelfa visitando il Signori (and another on the occasion of the 'papa'/pope - neither dated, but again shows Bruni's role in regard to the Parte Guelph - he also rewrote the statues of the Parte in 3 books),
Risposta agli ambasciadori del re di Raona, (1443), (47 MS survive - this oration delivered by the Florentine ambassador to Alfonso, was sensitive because King Rene had retreated to Florence after losing Naples)

Bruni was fostering this program before the Medici were masters, as was obvious as the Knighthood work was dedicated to Albizzi in 1420. But just 2 years after Albizzi is exiled we find the 1436 consecration of the duomo celebrated not just with religious celebrations via the pope but with the knighting of a Davanzati (with Malatesta involved in the knighting ceremony); its almost like that this was a necessary corrective to too many knights being exiled in the Albizzi faction (and from earlier exiles).

But the key displays of this inner clique of Civic Knights were the celebrated jousts in Santa Croce (and note the prominence of Parte Guelph insignia on the facade of S. Croce in Apollonio's joust cassone), hence the significance of the 'knight's' banners and livery at these events, mirroring the worldview, articulated by Bruni. If Bruni created the trumps it would have been only natural that someone within this clique - coincidentally also hailing from Arezzo - would display the iconographic trappings of 'trionfi' at a joust, where knighthood was put on display.

And I am not saying trionfi was not meant for playing by the general public - far from it, there were no state secrets here, just the naked aspirations of the Florentine elites, to be embraced by the supporting public (the higher members of which may have even aspired to the knighthood themselves - after all, Bruni was a 'foreigner' who became a wealthy Florentine citizen and its chancellor). But the trumps clearly favor an aristocratic worldview -e.g., the hoi polloi were never going to receive their betrothed on a triumphal wagon (e.g., the CY 'chariot') or serenaded via an armeggeria, meet the pope or emperor as ambassadors, or even have coats of arms to embellish card decks. To quote Lauro Martines: "Humanism: a program for ruling classes."

Phaeded

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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Thanks for the very valuable links and summaries, Phaeded. About your examples showing the elitist character of the cards, it seems to me that the figures are not meant as people one would come into contact with, but as people heading particularly valuable hierarchies in society, role-models, or allegories. In the luxury decks they might represent particular individuals as well, identifiable by sight. That is only slightly elitist, as these people did appear in public in Florence at that time.

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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Mike,
Almost all of Hankins' papers - not just on Bruni (although he is the English-speaking authority on Bruni, along with Gary Ianziti) are available right here: https://dash.harvard.edu/browse?authori ... vardAuthor

Ianziti is more enjoyable to read (a history of a historian - wryly funny? You'd be surprised) but does not have a similar site; he did, however, publish all of his papers on Bruni into one convenient volume (I believe he's now retired/emeritus): Gary Ianziti, Writing History in Renaissance Italy: Leonardo Bruni and the Uses of the Past. I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History. Cambridge, MA, 2012 http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php? ... 0674061521
mikeh wrote:....About your examples showing the elitist character of the cards, it seems to me that the figures are not meant as people one would come into contact with, but as people heading particularly valuable hierarchies in society, role-models, or allegories....That is only slightly elitist, as these people did appear in public in Florence at that time.
Fair enough, that the trumps were at least 'types' well known to all.

But the key card, in regard to the elite nature of the deck, is the 'Chariot', as the CY clearly links it to chastity and courtly love (likewise the related 'Love' trump, of course), of which only the elites could engage. The Florentine edifici featuring Cupid on his flaming ball were built on the occasion of the parade of armeggeria,when elites were dressed up like knights in mock combat, then breaking their lances against the palazzo of their beloved, is witnessed in several examples, most famously in 1459 with Lorenzo's armeggeria or in the 1464 case of Bartolomeo Benci and Marietta di Lorenzo degli Strozzi, recounted in Trexler (1980: 230f; see also Charles Dempsey on this theme in Inventing the Renaissance Putto[2001], especially 71f). The CY chariot trump suggests a woman who has capitulated to her knight's proposal of marriage, but more in a courtly, non-Florentine context - in the Milanese CY example she is in a wagon as she is traveling from her dominion to another (Florence had intra-city rituals instead). Trexler's more summary insights of the Florentine ritual - civic, yet still courtly as Florence could allow:
It would be easy to see these exercises as mere fantasy games of a feudal never-never land that had little to do with Florentine reality. But we have seen that this was certainly not the case. Conversely, these celebrations might be viewed as fronts for the articulation of alliances, the game and demonstrative aspects of the armeggerie being dismissed as merely external. But that would also be false. The right understanding of this Florentine sport recognized the politics of the game, both the importance of such honorable forms to Florentine self-regard, and the importance of the bonding process [between Florentine elite families]….The content of the armeggeria, as was said at the beginning, was feudal and personalistic, and it is from this point of view that we have studied it. But like the joust and dance, the armeggeria was subject to incursion by civil forces. Because it was associated with knightly honor, a commodity the ignoble government needed; because publicly sponsored armeggerie could defuse conspiratorial impulses; because communal funding of such noble demonstrations lightened the substantial financial burden carried by individual families; and because participation in publicly sponsored armeggerie would increase commitment to the commune (that is, to communal families) at the expense of commitment to private groups, the Florentine government in the later fourteenth century began to take certain armeggerie under its aegis. It was no accident that the Parte Guelfa was the entity charged with organizing these demonstrations, nor that the public armeggerie occurred only in the period 1380-1434; the regime identified itself with an antipopular, quasi-feudal familial ideology. (ibid, 232)
After 1434, when Cosimo returned? Private armeggerie for the Medici and their friends (the ‘knights’ being cultivated by Bruni’s program - furthered, if not redirected, by Landino, Poliziano, etc.), but private only in the sense that they were privately-financed; more often than not they still included associated dances and very public jousts in Santa Croce, associated with the Parte Guelph.

As for a Florentine ur-tarot 'chariot'? I would simply guess that it is 'Florentia' (the patria as allegorical woman, such as on Cosimo's medal reverse, but perhaps more of a clothed Venus pudica, then adapted into what we see on the CY) - a desirable yet chaste maiden that was the prize of the courtly game of armeggeria, with whatever civic stemma was thought appropriate at the time.

There is a reason trionfi appealed to elites as hand-painted luxury items, and not because all of the social types - i.e., the chaste maiden on the chariot or love card, who is herself an elite - represented in the trumps were wholly available to the popolo. Courtly love simply wasn't a virtue or ritual to be emulated or even appreciated by the popolo. The people were largely illiterate and yet the machinations of courtly love were celebrated poetically. To wit, a chaste maiden upon a triumphal cart, allegorical of a polity and it's future, is literally if uncomprehendingly classed as 'carro'.

Phaeded

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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I would take issue with your conclusion, Phaeded:
Courtly love simply wasn't a virtue or ritual to be emulated or even appreciated by the popolo. The people were largely illiterate and yet the machinations of courtly love were celebrated poetically. To wit, a chaste maiden upon a triumphal cart, allegorical of a polity and it's future, is literally if uncomprehendingly classed as 'carro'.
The ritual of the chaste maiden capitulating to her knight was enacted numerous times on the streets of Florence, every time there was a marriage procession from the bride's house to the groom's. See Franco's essay on cassoni, p. 12, as I translate, except for the quote, which is already in English (viewtopic.php?f=11&p=17628#p17628):
There can then be reported a circumstance that binds triumphal motifs to marriage ceremonies. The cassone was the main subject of the public procession that occurred between the bride’s house of origin and the family in which she was entering, and could therefore enhance the power and wealth of the families involved.
...
The traditional procession to the house of the groom had precisely the character of a triumphal procession; so, this "triumph of marriage" [start p. 13] even gave the title to an exhibition and the related catalogue (14). In the corresponding comment, it is stressed that this triumphal character of the procession had already been suggested by Witthöft, with particular reference to the groom and his family.
Much like Weisbach, Brucia Witthoft connects the revival of triumph imagery to Renaissance wedding processions. But in her view, the humanist-inspired triumph relates primarily to the groom. “The wedding procession is thus a ‘triumph’ in two senses. The groom’s triumph is that of a war-party, who succeeded in carrying off a bride and her possessions. The family’s triumph is the display of their wealth and power... the celebration of the alliance as a source of political or economic power.” (p. 10.)
___________
14. C. L. Baskins, The triumph of marriage. Boston 2008.
The reference to Witthoft is that of her article in Artibus et historiae, 3 (1982) 5, pp. 43-59. However I would take issue with this "war-party" analogy of Baskins, at least as an exclusive motif; the context, as we know from the themes of wedding cassoni, often taken from Boccaccio, would have been more that of courtly love's appropriation of the "war-party" analogy. I don't know if the bride was in a carriage or not. It probably depended on the wealth of the families. But it was a journey that could reasonably be accomplished by "carro" if affordable. The marriage procession, from the chastity of the maiden to the chastity of the wife, was also a triumph of chastity, or more properly pudicitia [avoiding shame], a virtue imposed upon all, including the groom. One did not have to be literate to appreciate this. Yet the literacy rate was fairly high in Florence at that time, perhaps two-thirds, as I remember reading somewhere recently (although it might have been one-third, still not a great marker of an elite).

Added later: Watson, in his PH.D. thesis, says (p. 8):
After the marriage had been consummated, the bride traveled in state to her husband's home. Wealthy girls frequently went on horseback, accompanied by relatives, musicians, and other attendants. ...
When the bride came to her new home, she wore a special costume to proclaim her new state. To judge from the evidence of ricordi and sumptuary laws, she rode in peacock-like splendor.
Later he quotes from a description of such a procession in 1434 by Francesco di Giuliano de' Medici, 2nd cousin to Cosimo vecchio, stating that "he sent her [his bride, Constanza] on horseback" (p. 11). There is a c. 1430 cassone panel illustrating just such a scene in the Victoria and Albert, he says (it is the second in a series of three). A chariot would be understood as simply a grander version of that, as in a c. 1450 cassone of "The Journey of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon", easily recognized by anyone

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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mikeh wrote:I would take issue with your conclusion, Phaeded:
Courtly love simply wasn't a virtue or ritual to be emulated or even appreciated by the popolo. The people were largely illiterate and yet the machinations of courtly love were celebrated poetically. To wit, a chaste maiden upon a triumphal cart, allegorical of a polity and it's future, is literally if uncomprehendingly classed as 'carro'.
The ritual of the chaste maiden capitulating to her knight was enacted numerous times on the streets of Florence, every time there was a marriage procession from the bride's house to the groom's.
The popolo were witnesses, but not participants in the ritual (and how they read the allegorical and classical trappings of the livery and cassone is anyone's guess, but presumably ignorance reigned there).

The trumps of Love (in the CY, clearly a marriage with the low 'consummation' bed behind them), Chariot (celebrating dominion, as in the CY, or outright rulership as in the PMB, AS, and CVI), and 'World' (the dominion to be ruled by the figure on the Chariot) are all a celebration of a quite frankly courtly culture, which even the Medici espoused, if not in name then by deeds from their Palazzo where they received (fellow) princes.

The notion that trumps - which celebrate not even a guild life but a courtly one (even the earliest "juggler" has on court clothes, not artisanal) - were created among the card-playing popolo (who simply aspired to positions within guilds) simply is not tenable, in my opinion: their walks of life within the dominion are not represented in the original trump examples (as they are later, for instance, in the 'Mantagna tarocchi'). The only nod in the popolo's direction, the earliest Fool in the PMB, is wholly negative - the miserable creature in rags, clearly inspired by Giotto's stulticia, has goiters. The message: don't become destitute rabble and if you become a thief or rabble-rouser (like the Ciompi), please see the hanged man trump.

I concede to your point that the card-playing popolo were exposed to civic ritual (increasingly absorbed by the Medici in the case of Florence) and were expected to have a rudimentary reading of the trumps (who their good Christian ruler was and that he interceded "on their behalf" with the likes of the Emperor and Pope), but I would also argue the hand-painted decks we primarily discuss have details meant for intra or inter-courtly readings (e.g., the lion of St. Mark on the PMB's King of Sword's shield).

At one level, the trumps as a mass-circulation species of "mirror for princes" to be understood by the whole realm - at least in terms of whom was prudently running the realm. If the trumps were immediately "trickled down" to the popolo - as seems to be the case (if not the intent) when they were created - a topical reading and understanding of the trumps had to be clear, but like Marcello's trump-like manuscript illumination for Cossa, opportunities for another level of more erudite reading was often likely in the hand-painted decks.
Image


Phaeded

Re: Another reference to ’14 figures’ (Florence)

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I wasn't arguing that triumphs had a plebian origin. I was simply arguing against the idea that "ignorance reigns" when it comes to the interpretation of the figures on the early cards, at least some of them and on some level. A sumptuously dressed lady on a chariot is easily enough associated to a bride coming into the well-to-do groom's territory by just about anybody in Milan or Florence. We don't actually know what the charioteer looked like in Florence originally. The minchiate's naked lady is rather obscure and suggests a humanist origin. A condottiere on a chariot in Florence would be well understood by anyone. Chariots were associated with victory and virtu, in the Latin sense of excellence, e.g. in the annual palio race and in the celebrations given to honor the important players in military victories.