The Star

[Huck]

"Les etoiles" in this 18th tarot from Turin:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... _id=972008

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... rentPage=1

hi,

"Les etoiles" is French.
There were Italian productions in French language at the end of 18th century, not only from Turin (which is near to France, but also in other more distant locations). These followed a style similar to the Tarot des Marseilles.

[SteveM]

In terms of entombment the cancer fits in terms of it being the gateway to the lower world (Christ's descent into hell prior to resurrection).

quote:

"From splendour to darkness, from Heaven to the Kingdom of Dis, from eternity to the bodies by the House of the Crab are these spirits doomed to descend, and pure in their simple essence, they shudder at the dull and blind habitations which they see prepared."

Bernard Sylvestris: De Mundi Universitate, ii, 3, 64-69. 12th century.

[marco]

The so called Mantegna-Tarot Poesia (poetry) is represented as a girl pouring water near a stream... and with stars.

poesia.jpg (126.26 KiB) Viewed 501 times

[SteveM]

I'm pretty sure they would have known better than to interpret the Sun's going dark at the crucifixion as an eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs precisely at New Moon, not Full Moon, its exact opposite. ..

The suggestion is in context of the eclipse at the time of the crucifixion being a miraculous, supernatural event, not a natural one.

quote:
And then on the day of the passion of our Lord when darkness was upon the universal world, the philosophers that were at Athens could not find in causes natural the cause of that darkness. And it was no natural eclipse, for the moon was then from the sun, and was fifteen days old, and so was in a perfect distance from the sun, and nevertheless an eclipse taketh not away the light in the universal parts of the world, and it may not endure three hours long. And it appeareth that this eclipse took away all the light, by that which S. Luke saith that, our Lord suffered in all his members; and because that the eclipse was in Heliopolis, in Egypt, and Rome and in Greece...

...These be the words of Denis that he wrote in his epistle to Polycarp, and to Apollophanes, saying: We were, we twain, at Heliopolis, and we saw the moon of heaven go disordinately, and the time was not convenable. And yet again from the ninth hour unto evensong time, at the diameter of the sun established above all natural ordinance, that eclipse we saw begin in the east and coming unto the term of the sun. After that returning again, and not purged of that default, but was made contrary after the diameter. Then Denis and Apollophanes went to Heliopolis in Egypt by desire to learn astronomy. And after, Denis returned again. That the said eclipse took away the light from the universal parts of the world, it appeareth that Eusebius witnesseth in his chronicles, which saith that he hath read in the dictes of the Ethnicians that there was in Bithynia, which is a province of Asia the less, a great earth shaking, and also the greatest darkness that might be, and also saith that in Nicene, which is a city of Bithynia, that the earth trembling threw down houses. And it is read in Scholastica Historia that the philosophers were brought to this, that they said that: The God of nature suffered death, or else the ordinance of nature in this world was dissolved, or that the elements lived, or the God of nature suffered, and the elements had pity on him. And it is said in another place, that Denis saith: This night signified that the new very light of the world should come. And they of Athens made unto this God an altar, and set this title thereupon: This is the altar of the God unknown.

end quote: The Golden Legends Vol.5

[debra]

Thanks for this, Steve. There's a bit of magic for ya

[marco]

The so called Mantegna-Tarot Poesia (poetry) is represented as a girl pouring water near a stream... and with stars.

Apparently, a similar allegory of Poetry appears in the Pastoral Concert by Giorgione or maybe Titian.

[marco]

On Google Books there is “dictionary of symbols” published in 1678: (Mondo simbolico formato d'imprese scelte, Filippo Picinelli).

Here is Picinelli's explanation for poetry represended by a water spring:

“Father Raffaele Appiano, regular canonic, put this sentence above a fountain in which water springs from a marble column into a marble basin: “natura et arte” (with nature and art). It can be seen as the idea of Poetry, about which Horatio writes in “The Art [of Poetry]”:
Ego quid studium sine divite vena,
Nec rude qui possit video ingenium; alterius sic
Altera poscit opem res, et coniurat amice.
(I do not see what effort can do without
a rich vein, nor genius alone; they need
each other and must be friendly to each other)”

About the Aquarius Zodiac sign:

The Water Bearer sign of the Zodiac is represented while pouring water from jars with the motto “numquam deficient” (they never run out). It can stand for the mercy and gifts from God, which always flow in abundance, without running out, at the advantage of the world. Arnold Carnotensis [Arnold of Bonneval?] in “Tractatus de semptem verbis Christi”: “Divine indulgence is not limited in its quantity, does not limp towards its goal, has no boundaries at all. If there is someone who asks, there will be someone who hears”. Juan Antonio Velazquez  in “Psalmum Centesimum Davidis commentarii” quoting Philo: “Therefore it is truly said that since God is eternal, one can also say that he is a perpetual giver and benefactor. Not sometimes only, not in a small quantity, but always, continuously and indefinitely. He untiringly accumulates, adding gifts to gifts, providing richer and richer benefits”

PS: I have found another interesting association in Les Douze estoilles qui composent la couronne de la sainte Vierge, Felix Cueilles, 1676.

Genesis, 1, 6-10: "dixit quoque Deus fiat firmamentum in medio aquarum et dividat aquas ab aquis;
et fecit Deus firmamentum divisitque aquas quae erant sub firmamento ab his quae erant super firmamentum et factum est ita; vocavitque Deus firmamentum caelum et factum est vespere et mane dies secundus;
dixit vero Deus congregentur aquae quae sub caelo sunt in locum unum et appareat arida factumque est ita;
et vocavit Deus aridam terram congregationesque aquarum appellavit maria et vidit Deus quod esset bonum"

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day.
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it
was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together
of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

The Latin for "seas" is "maria", which is an omograph of "Mary". So this sentence has been used by Cueilles and others to explain the association of the Virgin with water and the sea.

a 1590 engraving

[marco]

This Jstor paper discusses the derivation of the Louvre "Patoral Concert" / "Fete Champetre" from the so-called Mantegna Tarot:

The Art Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Dec., 1959), "Poesia and the Fete Champêtre", Patricia Egan, pp. 303-313
At p.308, the author mentions a XV century armorial (which apparently was already quoted by Hind) as a possible source for the Mantegna tarot allegory of Poetry. Actually, since the date of production of the armorial (footnote 22) is very uncertain, it is unclear if the Tarocchi were derived from the armorial or vice versa:

Une jeune dame les cheveux pendens, ung chappelet de fleurs par dessus, touchant de la main dextre ung flaiol, de l'aultre main espenchant a ung pot de terre de l'eau qui sourdait d'une fontaine, et en ses piedz le firmament — porte d'assur le firmament d'argent.

A young lady, with her hair loose, wearing a garland of flowers, playing a flute with her right hand and with her other hand pouring with a pottery pitcher the water springing from a fountain, at her foot the firmament - field of blue the firmament of silver.

The paper interprets the fountain as the Castalian font, but it provides no explanation for the presence of the stars.