There is a pattern in World cards that has been quite successful during the centuries: an allegorical figure on the top of a circular image. I propose here a few examples, without any intention of being exhaustive. The allegorical figures vary a lot:
* Charles VI (Florence, XV Century): a woman holding a globe and sceptre, with the polygonal halo typical of Tuscan allegories
* Bolognese Tarot (e.g. Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts): a Mercury-like figure, holding a winged sceptre and a "globus cruciger" (a globe topped by a cross)
* Rosenwald (Tuscany, XV Century): an angel holding a sword and a globe
* Tarot de Paris (1620 ca): fortune, holding a sail
* Minchiate (Florence): an Eros-like figure, holding an arrow and a crown
The fact that some of these allegories hold a globe is meant to signify the dominion over the world of the principle represented by the allegory. As clarified below, the same concept is also implied by the fact that the allegory stands on a circular image.
w7.jpg
Viewed 12902 times 140.42 KiB
The circular figures are somehow less variable and can be classified in three families:
* a circle containing a landscape surrounded by a circular frame (Charles VI, Metropolitan, Rosenwald, Minchiate Al Leone)
* a circle divided into four quarters representing the four elements (Bolognese tarot)
* a globe (Tarot de Paris, Minchiate Etruria)
In these categories there are variations. For instance, the globe in the Tarot de Paris actually is a Globus Cruciger, in the Minchiate Etruria, it is a realistic representation of the world.
All these circular object are meant to represent “Il Mondo”. That a circle can be a good representation of the universe is also implied by the images in which God's tool for the creation is a pair of compasses (see
this image posted by Robert). As recently
pointed out by Ross, “Mundus” can be translated both as “the world” and as “the universe”. In the Medieval and early Renaissance concept of the Universe, the World was at the center of the Universe, so it could be used as a symbol of it. And a single landscape or scene could be used as representative of the whole World, as in
this XV Century painting or
this 1507 manuscript: a specific subject is selected as relevant and used as a symbol of the whole world (surrounding it with a more or less complex frame that represents the spheres of the elements and of the planets).
The Minchiate Etruria/Al Leone (both dating to the XVIII Century) provide a good example of how different representations of the World could be interchanged.
mnc.jpg
Viewed 12904 times 129.14 KiB
In all cases, the overall meaning of the card is the illustration of a (metaphorically and graphically higher) principle that informs the world, somehow defining its essence.
This pattern existed independently on tarot, see for instance
this representation of God in the Nuremberg Bible(1493) (brought to my attention by Michael J. Hurst). Or
this XVII Century statue of Fortune in Venice.