Who are the kings in the Cay-Yale trumps?
Posted: 30 Oct 2009, 21:03
In another thread, we recently discussed the figure of the king that appears at the feet of the Cary-Yale Visconti Faith trump. About this card, in 1831 Leopoldo Cicognara wrote: “In the lower part, one sees the figure of a king with a golden crown on his head. At the feet of Religion one can see the traces of an inscription which is too damaged to be read, but the few visible letters give sufficient reason to believe it is the name of the author Martiano...”.
Being under the feet of Faith, this figure must represent an enemy of Faith, such as an heretic, and being crowned he must be a king: so he cannot be Marziano da Tortona, a respected scholar who was a member of the Visconti court.
From what I can see in the image, I think that the remaining letters could be read as “...ra...” possibly “...ura...”. They could also read “...ma...”, but those letters seem to me the central part of the inscription, not the beginning. In the attached image, I highlighted what I subjectively see as the relevant letters. I could be completely wrong, since what is visible is very little indeed.
As pointed out by MikeH in the other thread, the historian Maria Grazia Tolfo suggests that the king is Ninus of Niniveh, who was indeed considered as an example of idolatry (see Figure 2 here). His name does not seem to me to fit what I think I can read on the card: still it is possible that Ninus is the most reasonable hypothesis.
Does anyone know of any other candidate for the identity of this character? And what about the other king that we see at the feet of Charity?
About the character at the feet of Hope, I completely agree with the identification of him as Judas, as reported by Robert.
Marco
Being under the feet of Faith, this figure must represent an enemy of Faith, such as an heretic, and being crowned he must be a king: so he cannot be Marziano da Tortona, a respected scholar who was a member of the Visconti court.
From what I can see in the image, I think that the remaining letters could be read as “...ra...” possibly “...ura...”. They could also read “...ma...”, but those letters seem to me the central part of the inscription, not the beginning. In the attached image, I highlighted what I subjectively see as the relevant letters. I could be completely wrong, since what is visible is very little indeed.
As pointed out by MikeH in the other thread, the historian Maria Grazia Tolfo suggests that the king is Ninus of Niniveh, who was indeed considered as an example of idolatry (see Figure 2 here). His name does not seem to me to fit what I think I can read on the card: still it is possible that Ninus is the most reasonable hypothesis.
Does anyone know of any other candidate for the identity of this character? And what about the other king that we see at the feet of Charity?
About the character at the feet of Hope, I completely agree with the identification of him as Judas, as reported by Robert.
Marco