Re: Strength

21
In the half card on the Cary Yale sheet...thought to be Strength.
The figure has 'billowing hair" (Kaplan) No hat of any sort- not even half a hat.
The left arm reaches down to the Lion's mouth but what interests me, and I do not know if has been discussed before but on the shoulder appears to be armour not a rolled sleeve. It is distincly different from any Tarot de Marseille style-the sleeve top is very reminscent of the armour on the Sola - Busca Tarocchi Cards 1, 11, 1111 (Mario) for example.
It is not at all like the women's sleeves on the remainder Cary-Yale.
~Lorredan.
If some one could post it here that would be great.
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Strength

24
The strength engraving in the "Mantegna tarot" shows an athletically proportioned armored figure wearing the Nemean lion's head whose mane has flowing locks. She is breaking a column rather than shushing (?) a lion, but maybe there was a common model for both illustrations
MantegnaForteza.jpg MantegnaForteza.jpg Viewed 19845 times 74.92 KiB

An Austrian/southern German Samson

27
Here is another "Samson and the Lion", which I post because the pose is particularly close to the Cary-Yale, Cary Sheet, and the Marseille-type. It is from Les Enluminures du Louvre: Moyen Age et Renaissance, ed Avril, Reynaud & Condellier, 2011, p. 31. It is from a Biblia pauperum (Pauper's Bible). The blurb says (p. 30):
Les plus anciens exemplaires de Biblia pauperum conservés, auxquels appartiennent aussi les fragments du Louvre, ont été réalisés en Autriche et dans le sud de l'Allemagne au début du XIVe siecle.
(The oldest copies of the Biblia pauperum preserved, to which the fragments in the Louvre also belong, were made ​​in Austria and southern Germany in the early fourteenth century.)
Image

Strength trumping Fortune

28
A painting by Lorenzo Lotto, before 1550: "Combattimento tra la Fortezza e la Fortuna infelice" (Fight between Fortitude and bad Fortune).
lorenzo_lotto.png lorenzo_lotto.png Viewed 19170 times 490.62 KiB
Translation of the web page description:
Fortitude is depicted as a young warrior who, without apparent effort , is preparing to throw a marble column against another woman submitted to her, adverse Fortune, in an aerial fight. The latter, naked and made awkward by her evident imbalance, is caught in the moment of her fall from the top of a globe or from the stern of a boat that is sinkin , while the furious wind of the storm has already broken the mast and ripped the sail. The composition of the painting recalls, albeit specularly inverted, that of the Archangel Michael and Lucifer, and like that, it was included in the list of works made lottery in Ancona in 1550 and sold for four scudi. The allegorical intent is overtly directed to underlining the primary value of Fortitude, an inner resource, as opposed to Fortune, which turns like the wind, filling the sails of the ships, and a moment later breaking the mast.

Re: Strength

29
Greetings,

A great find, Marco! I've always been partial to Lotto, although I never knew he could be so violent! Seems more in tune with Machiavelli, who first likens Fortuna to the violent forces of nature or a raging, destructive river and, thereafter, a woman, where “it is necessary, in order to keep her under, to beat and maul her.”

For another take on “watery” Fortuna from the Venetian school, please find Bellini’s Fortuna (ca. 1490). An interesting aspect of this piece is the fortress situated at background upon a circular rise or island, which is reminiscent of Boethius’ “inner fortress” as the “center of mankind and of the soul” containing the “inner spark of truth” and constituting the starting point to our return to the intelligible realm.

This panel is part of a set of four, which originally formed part of a dressing-table with a mirror belonging to the painter, Vincenzo Catena. The first of these other three panels is variously entitled “Lust” or “Perseverance.” It depicts Bacchus in a chariot with a bowl of fruit tempting a virtuous man or the personification of perseverance which, in turn, has links with fortitude, temperance, or prudence. The second panel pertains to prudence. Much controversy surrounds interpretation of the fourth panel, which has been variously linked with falsehood, wisdom, or rebirth/regeneration.

Re: Strength

30
Kate wrote: For another take on “watery” Fortuna from the Venetian school, please find Bellini’s Fortuna (ca. 1490). An interesting aspect of this piece is the fortress situated at background upon a circular rise or island, which is reminiscent of Boethius’ “inner fortress” as the “center of mankind and of the soul” containing the “inner spark of truth” and constituting the starting point to our return to the intelligible realm.
Hello Kate,
I am happy you appreciate Lotto's little painting!

Thank you for your comments about Bellini's allegories.
I only recently read Michael J. Hurst's posts on the subject:
http://pre-gebelin.blogspot.com/2009/04 ... -of-3.html
http://pre-gebelin.blogspot.com/2009/05 ... -of-3.html

I was puzzled by the fortress in the background of the allegory of Fortune. I think your interpretation is very helpful. In Italian "fortezza" means both "fortress" and "fortitude". So Bellini's point might be the same as Lotto's. Fortitude as Virtue in general, triumphing over Fortune. In Bellini's painting the stress is on the solidity of the tower of wisdom, the fortress of fortitude, when compared with the instability of Fortune's boat and ball: "Sedes Fortunae rotunda; sedes Virtutis quadrata" - the seat of Fortune is round, the seat of Virtue is squared.
cron