Re: The Fool

101
Huck wrote
As Michael I tend to believe, that the baton is not a trumpet at the PMB-Fool. We have three Italian Fools with feathers, Giotto's Stultitia Fool and the PMB-Fool ...
... and the both others don't have a trumpet. Why shoul the 3rd suddenly have one.
Huck,
First of all Giotto is not a tarot comparable - there are several "God-denying fools" illuminating Psalms which was the source of Giotto's Stultitia; Giotto was an influence on the PMB but not an exact model. Moreover, the "baton/pole" the PMB holds, to say it again, looks nothing like either Giotto’s club nor the club held by the Strength figure - yet the PMB Strength's club does look like Giotto's club, so why not also the Fool’s supposed club? Even if painted by a different painter - Dummet proposes someone else in Bembo's studio in Cremona, perhaps a brother - the copybook sources would have been the same so if a club was intended it would have looked similar. The PMB's "pole" looks nothing like Strength’s club but instead has the exact profile of the contemporary trumpet comparables I provided earlier.

The CVI, Este and Bologna Fools are all derivative of the PMB Fool, but altered to suit the needs of those later decks, so the meaning of the Ambrosian Republic’s mob was bound to change. CONTEXT of the deck in question is pivotal. Yet the Bolognese modifies yet retains the item in question as a musical instrument, but showing it being played – again, not enough space to show a trumpet being played, so a similar straight wind instrument was substituted.

The CVI, IMO, reflects a jab at Sixtus IV in his war on Lorenzo the Magnificent’s Florence (both pope and Fool wear a blue robe, the fool wears a triple-like crown like the papal tiara; the pope had four nephews in his service painted with him the year before the Pazzi conspiracy which I believe the four “rock throwing” youths stirred up by the Fool refer to; see Polizianos’ contemporary insulting literary jabs at Sixtus after the assassination attempt in 1478). To say it again, the context of the deck – why it was created – explains the meaning of the several changed cards of the CVI deck; to wit, the “Chariot” is no longer even female.

The Este Fool actually comes very close to my interpretation of the PMB Fool as the leader of a mob. Again, a trumpeter is always in a noble’s livery and announced the noble’s party; same with a noble’s standard bearer – which is what the Fool is here, except he of course does not precede nor announce a noble. Instead he leads the erotically-charged mob (all three “youths” reach/stare at his genitals), with a come-hither wave of his arm, under a non-sense stemma (resembles Siena’s coat of arms, but I am guessing the black/white refers to death, such as the same colored shrouds one finds on the illuminations of Petrarch’s Death trionfi manuscripts; thus a pied piper leading the fools to their deaths).
Death confronting Chastity, Pessellino trionfi illumination.jpg Death confronting Chastity, Pessellino trionfi illumination.jpg Viewed 28627 times 133.51 KiB
Phaeded

Re: The Fool

102
Phaeded wrote: Huck,
First of all Giotto is not a tarot comparable - there are several "God-denying fools" illuminating Psalms which was the source of Giotto's Stultitia; Giotto was an influence on the PMB but not an exact model. Moreover, the "baton/pole" the PMB holds, to say it again, looks nothing like either Giotto’s club nor the club held by the Strength figure - yet the PMB Strength's club does look like Giotto's club, so why not also the Fool’s supposed club? Even if painted by a different painter - Dummet proposes someone else in Bembo's studio in Cremona, perhaps a brother - the copybook sources would have been the same so if a club was intended it would have looked similar. The PMB's "pole" looks nothing like Strength’s club but instead has the exact profile of the contemporary trumpet comparables I provided earlier.


You're right with the Fool in the Psalm illuminations. I personally wasn't aware about strong traditions in this iconography comparable to the Tarot iconography. It's nice to learn something new.
I think, you're also right with the assumption, that the PMB Fool expresses a poor situation, possibly the bad state of the Milanese population in the begin of Sforza's reign.
Well, I don't accept, that the baton of the PMB should have been a trumpet.

Alberti uses in his Philodoxus theater play the trumpeter in the finishing scene (No. 20). Likely the trumpet belongs to the end of the triumphal sequence, not to the beginning.
Well, there are a lot of musicians between the offered Fools, but we have also the beggar type ...

Chess iconography (Cessolis traditions)

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Karnöffel, as presented by the poet Mysner.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=416&hilit=mysner
The Karnöffel robs somebody and steals his fine clothes. Possibly the victim looks after this action similar to the PMB-Fool, and the winner (the Karnöffel) looks similar to the rather fine dressed magician in the PMB (which isn't repeated in later Tarocchi versions). In the early time of the Trionfi decks it might well be, that the iconography showed influences of a possible forerunner deck, the Imperatori cards, which might have been famliar to the Karnöffel (later for some time called Keyserspiel).

Momus / Lucian / Mantegna Tarocchi
The beggar as "idealized best role" in the work "Momus" by Alberti, which possibly influenced the Mantegna Tarocchi beggar. Diogenes, who appeared on Tarocchi cards. Momus appeared in later art, and looked like the Mantegna Tarocchi beggar.

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Full picture
http://www.backtoclassics.com/images/pi ... ations.jpg

compare article ...
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=212528&page=3


Miseria, the late "second Fool" in the Tarocco Siciliano.

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The CVI, Este and Bologna Fools are all derivative of the PMB Fool, but altered to suit the needs of those later decks, so the meaning of the Ambrosian Republic’s mob was bound to change. CONTEXT of the deck in question is pivotal. Yet the Bolognese modifies yet retains the item in question as a musical instrument, but showing it being played – again, not enough space to show a trumpet being played, so a similar straight wind instrument was substituted.
They followed the PMB-Fool in its function as "Fool" in a card game, but these are rather different types of Fool. The Bolognese type is a musician and it repeats often enough, and CVI and Este Fools are giants .... like "Morgante".

I personally think, that the d'Este (they bought a "Morgante" in 1474) followed the theme "Orlando" (with Boiardo, and later with Ariost), that Pulci had realized earlier in his Morgante.

Orlando and Morgante meet in "Morgante" during a stone-throwing scene and become friends. "Morgante's" background is, that the poor poet Pulci got a job from the Medici.
Pulci lived in the Mugello and had a mill there, about 5 km from a holiday castle of the Medici, which was mainly used by Lucretia Tornuabuoni and her children (the other Medici were mostly too sick to make such long journeys; between the children was naturally Lorenzo de Medici). So Pulci got the commission to write the Morgante, cause it was an interest of the Medici to present "a good French side", cause they urgently needed a good business relationship to the French-king-in-spe, later Louis XI of France. This was one part of the deal with Pulci. The other was, that Lucrezia needed somebody to watch the children in the adventurious forests. Lorenzo described later Pulci in the role, who sat down at a fallen tree, letting the children do what they want, working on his poem, and finally organizing the children as his listeners to his latest ideas ... and so he arranged, that Lorenzo and all his present friends (Lorenzo's gang) later also became poet's, at least a little bit. In these early years the poem made a lot of progress, he reached canto 15 or 16 (in the latest version it had 28 canti). Then Lorenzo was old enough and the interests of the now young man changed. The development of the poem became slow.
Lorenzo loved hunting and Cafaggiolo became a hunting castle.



Cafaggiolo Castle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Medici_at_Cafaggiolo
Other sources tell, that it became of use since 1458.

The friendship between Orlando = Lorenzo (small) and giant Morgante = Pulci (big, 17 years older) started with a stone battle. Orlando had already killed one giant, but then he met Morgante, but this was actually a peaceful guy, who didn't throw stones. So they became friends. Morgante (very big) had trouble to find the right armour for the future adventures, finally he found one, but only for the upper part. His weapon became the clapper of a bell.

Image


Well, that's naturally only a reconstruction, how it might have been. The d'Este motif proceeded with the giant scenario.
The CVI, IMO, reflects a jab at Sixtus IV in his war on Lorenzo the Magnificent’s Florence (both pope and Fool wear a blue robe, the fool wears a triple-like crown like the papal tiara; the pope had four nephews in his service painted with him the year before the Pazzi conspiracy which I believe the four “rock throwing” youths stirred up by the Fool refer to; see Polizianos’ contemporary insulting literary jabs at Sixtus after the assassination attempt in 1478). To say it again, the context of the deck – why it was created – explains the meaning of the several changed cards of the CVI deck; to wit, the “Chariot” is no longer even female.
The nephews of Sixtus were grown up men. And "after 1478" looks too late. In my opinion the young male chariot driver with some older Medici heraldry (7 palle), explain with young Lorenzo as the focussed person. I prefer my version.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: The Fool

103
Once the Fool (Beggar) had dogs.

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Or one dog ...

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In the Marseille tradition the dog often looked (a little bit) like a cat.

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Etteilla's Fool (1788) had something, which looked like a leopard.

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The Grandpretre Tarot Fool had a lion, and it was named the Devil (true age of the deck not known)

http://marygreer.files.wordpress.com/20 ... -devil.jpg

The 66-cards French divination deck (c. 1790), recently detected for the web by Kwaw, hasn't a Fool, but a Tiger (interestingly No. 22):
Full deck at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1083
It's a lonesome animal there

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A Moscow divination deck 1825 (42 cards and with lots of similarities to the 66-cards deck) has a similar Tiger (nearly all cards are similar to cards in the 66-cards deck).
Full deck at http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks05/d02370/d02370.htm

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... :-) ... here more a cat.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: The Fool

104
Heraldic of the printer Gutenberg ...

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... from https://books.google.de/books?id=qn3PAA ... &q&f=false

... also used at ...

https://heraldik-wiki.de/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg

I don't know from the text, what the knight picture shall mean in this context. The round picture carries the name Gensfleisch (older name of Gutenberg).

----------------------

It shall mean a pilgrim, but somehow it looks a little bit like the Tarot-de-Marseille Fool.

A relative called "Jakob von Sorgenloch gen. Gensfleisch d.Ä. 1478, Eltville" ...

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-----------------------

A Gutenberg memorial (Frankfurt 1840)...

Image


-------------------------

A small text at the heraldic page gives the info, that a line Gensfleisch / Afterdingen/Ofterdingen existed, and this had the same figure with a "Spieß auf der Schulter" (a sort of lance at the shoulder) and no pilgrim bowl, so more similar to the Tarot de Marseille Fool.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: The Fool

105
Bottega di paolo uccello, pannelli di cassone con armi medici e rucellai, firenze, 1466 ca.

From ...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... ca._01.JPG





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Red frame: Medici heraldry with 7 palle

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Charles VI Chariot, Medici heraldry with 7 palle

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Fool with ass-ears cap, according the picture description from c. 1466 and connected to Rucellai and Medici.

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Rosenwald Tarocchi Fool-Magician, possibly c. 1465

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calendar Fool c1464/65

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calendar Fool c1464/65

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ass-ears cap of Fool of Charles VI trionfi, hypothetical from 1463 and under influence of Pulci's Morgante

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giant Fool and giant Magician, Este cards c. 1473/74
The Este court bought a Morgante version in 1474

Contexts
.... "8 June 1466, the date of the wedding-feast of Giovanni's son Bernardo Rucellai and Nannina de' Medici, the daughter of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici and elder sister to Lorenzo il Magnifico. At the feast, 500 guests were seated on a dais which occupied the loggia and the whole of the piazza and the street in front of Palazzo Rucellai."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loggia_Rucellai

From the life of Piero de Medici
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_di_ ... %27_Medici
His time as leader of Florence was marked by an attempted coup led by Luca Pitti, Niccolò Soderini, Diotisalvi Neroni, Angelo Acciaiuoli and his cousin Pierfrancesco de' Medici, using troops provided by Borso d'Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, and commanded by his brother Ercole d'Este (planned for 26 August 1466).
This wasn't long after the wedding.

Letter from Pulci to Lorenzo, in which he mentioned the word Minchiate
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=338&lng=ENG
To Lorenzo

It is quite true that as soon as I walk away from you, my Lauro, I walk away from reason, and for this sin I have committed in leaving you, Phoebus, indignant with me, allowed me to get sick (1). Yesterday, in desperation, I escaped with difficulty from the hands of Bisticci (2): here I can govern myself (to save myself from the illness) with certain ointments and Salay’s advice (3). I would come to you to excuse me, but I would not want to take the risk that Christ might come near enough to me to sing at night by my bed. I have a great desire to see you again, and if I had a horse I would come to you to challenge you at Minchiate, at Passadieci [literally, Pass ten], at Sbaraglino [literally, Outperform], and you know how I mistreated you (4). I'll try to come soon if you stay there for a few days; today I feel like I'm a fresh pea (5). Ser Mariano told me that you told him to send you the bagpipes and trombone; Mariano sent them (to you); and I believe that they are well settled. I had the pipes fixed before leaving you. I would have liked to have the instruments with me, and if I were stronger, I would have brought them to you. I sent a sonnet to Lady Lucrezia, I'll send you a copy. And, please, send my greetings to Piero Allarmimi and Sigismondo, and, if he is there, Cosimo Bartoli; and remember them all from me. And if you deign to meet our desire to one day to come to us, you know where an old and poor house if found (that of the Pulci). Be well. On the 23rd of August, 1466.

Your Luigi to the Palace (Your Luigi who writes to the Palace, where Lorenzo was).
This was written 3 days before the attack.

The Cassone shows at the other side heavy fights, possibly it refers to the war (1467), which followed.



Image

The chariot of the triumphator follows a chariot with prisoners.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: The Fool

106
Huck wrote:
Typically cassoni depict biblical or classical events in contemporary guise/stemmi, but the 7 balls on the pennants are NOT standard for the Medici with the central one so large (although the 3 ring device is on the foot servant in front of the prisoners); the CVI charioteer does show all 7 balls as the same size, by contrast.

I'm not sure what they are trying to depict exactly, but perhaps David (an adopted Florentine hero) returning to Jerusalem with prisoners from one of his campaigns. I hazard that guess as it explains the "god-denying Fool" who always appears with David in manuscript illuminations of Psalm 52 and makes the same gesture (King David appears in the manuscript below in Medieval garb, of course - I'm guessing by the 1460s classical garb was more in vogue):
Image


The lead standard showing "SPQR" would argue against a biblical interpretation and instead for a classical scene, so its more probable the well-worn David/Fool motif (perhaps simply signifying divine-sanctioned rulership) was mixed in with the elements of a classical triumph.

Re: The Fool

107
Phaeded wrote: Typically cassoni depict biblical or classical events in contemporary guise/stemmi, but the 7 balls on the pennants are NOT standard for the Medici with the central one so large (although the 3 ring device is on the foot servant in front of the prisoners); the CVI charioteer does show all 7 balls as the same size, by contrast.
Well, somebody titled the picture ...
"Bottega di paolo uccello, pannelli di cassone con armi medici e rucellai, firenze, 1466 ca."

I don't know the reason. For the moment. So let's look for it:

The statement together with the dating 1466ca. leads to to the Rucellai/Medici wedding 1466. The close context to the war in 1466 might be naturally accidental.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipila ... otostream/
... has pictures in photostream ....
with the comment "1466 - 'Triumph scene, panel of a marriage chest (cassone)' (circle of Giovanni di Ser Giovanni 'lo Scheggia'), Firenze, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France"

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Medici diamond rings at hat

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Visconti sun at the horse of a young man. Shall this indicate Galeazzo Maria Sforza? In 1466 he was just crowned as duke of Milan.

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At the left Medici diamond rings plus Medici feathers.
In the middle a half Visconti sun (possibly) and a circular object, that I don't know.
At the right a Visconti-sun-shield.

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Medici diamond rings at the back of the page, possibly together with Rucellai sail (?). The hat with Medici diamon rings (again, already shown) at the right.

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diamond rings, Medici

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Piero de Medici feathers

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Rucellai sail

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Visconti sun
http://insightfulvision.com/gallery-visconti-.php
http://ellievelinska.blogspot.de/2012_0 ... chive.html

***********

Overview:

Full view:
http://a-tarot.eu/p/2016/sc-106.jpg

Galeazzo Maria Sforza was of importance, as he brought concrete help in the battle of 1467. So the picture likely wasn't done 1466, but a little later.
It's interesting, that he was presented close to the Fool and he and the Fool were decorated with an SPQR.

*****************

At the other picture of the Cassone (backside, I assume) ...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... ca._03.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... ca._04.JPG

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... we have at the selected regions Medici heraldry (diamonds), possibly mixed with Milan symbols (Visconti-sun).

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At the right side we meet a trumpeter with a Visconti sun and and possibly another Visconti sun at the right.

Image


The trumpeter is clearly a front figure on the picture, and above the Visconti-sun is (possibly) a word, which I don't understand.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: The Fool

108
I find, that I detected this picture earlier (2014) ....
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=858&start=70

Image


Image


... at this report it was identified as "Triumph of Scipio Africanus"
I stumbled about a German text "Trionfi. Mit 60 Abbildungen." (1919) by Werner Weisbach. ("Trionfi. With 60 pictures.")
https://archive.org/details/trionfimit60abbi00weisuoft
https://archive.org/stream/trionfimit60 ... 6/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/trionfimit60 ... 8/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/trionfimit60 ... 0/mode/2up

The author mentions Medici and Rucellai heraldic, but ignores the Visconti-sun. The battle scene presents to him the "battle of Zama", ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama
... in contrast to the opinion of another author ("Schubring 111"), who saw Caesar as the major protagonist (battle Caesar against Pompeius 48BC, triumphal march 46BC).

Image

from Paul Schubring (1915/2012) https://books.google.de/books?id=kXASAw ... ar&f=false

I personally think, that the battle of Molinella (1467 AD) had the larger influence, taking the disguise of an antique object with similar character.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Molinella
The Battle of Riccardina or Battle of Molinella, fought on July 25, 1467, in Molinella, was one of the most important battles of the 15th century in Italy.

Combatants
On the one side were 14,000 infantry and cavalry led by Bartolomeo Colleoni in theory fighting for Venice (but Colleoni had his personal agenda), in coalition with Borso d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara (represented by his half-brother Ercole I d'Este) and the Lords of Pesaro, Forlì and some renegade families of Florence.
On the other side was an army of 13,000 soldiers in the service of Florence, allied with Galeazzo Maria Sforza (ruler of the Duchy of Milan), King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Giovanni II Bentivoglio (ruler of Bologna). The army was led by a Federico da Montefeltro.

The battle
The battle was fought along the Idice river, between the villages of Riccardina (near Budrio) and Molinella. Historians disagree on who won the battle. The only certainty is that Bartolomeo Colleoni had to abandon his plans to conquer Milan. There were between 600 and 700 casualties. Notable was the large number of horses killed (almost 1,000).

The battle is historically important because, for the first time in Italy, artillery and firearms were intensively used.

A large fresco in the Castle of Malpaga, probably by Girolamo Romani, depicts the battle.
In 1468 peace was concluded under the initiative of Pope Paul II.


... .-) ... this picture also doesn't show the cannons
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: The Fool

109
Huck,
con armi medici e rucellai simply means the stemmi of both families can be found in the historical narrative. The exact same phrase is used by Giusti in his commissioning of a tarot deck for Malatesta - con l'armi; hardly means we are to find Malatesta himself consorting with the other tarot trumps.

The narrative itself features SPQR (not something Florence would have paraded around with) and neither family would have a leading male member shown with a Fool raising a hand towards them as if to worship them as a divine Caesar.

Typically the fool raises his hand towards God in a nimbus and denies him, but here the hand is raised to the ruler without any God-figure over head.

Neither a contemporary Florentine nor a biblical figure would have had another figure gesticulating that one is divine - only a classical subject would not be shy about declaring divinity, as in the DIVUS JULIUS coin showing Julius Caesar's sideral 'apotheosis' following his assassination (minted by his heir, Octavius/Augustus of course).
Image


And the Florentines knew their Roman history.

Re: The Fool

110
Phaeded wrote: And the Florentines knew their Roman history.
Sure. But you see (as far I remember), that the March of the 3 holy Kings in the Medici chapel is also an old story and that it is filled with contemporary Renaissance persons and you don't see the parallel to the distant battle of Zama and a contemporary Renaissance conflict around 1467 ?

Or do you want to say, that the observed Visconti sun at the picture is actually the star-flame at Caesar's coin?

Image
Huck
http://trionfi.com