Reading about Lo Scheggia, I see that he is at least the right sort of artist to have been doing tarot cards. In the book Lo Scheggio, 1999, Luciano Bellosi says (my highlighting and translation, p. 30; corrections are welcome):
And later (p. 31):A uno sguardo d'insieme, il fratello di Masaccio ci appare come uno di quei pittori fiorentini di seconda fila che fondarono la propria fortuna su una produzione minore ma di lusso e di larga diffusione. Sono pittori che troviamo impegnati a dipingere carte da tarocchi, a preparare disegni per ricami, ad eseguire affreschi poveri in terretta verde, a colorare e dipingere rilievi in stucco o in terracotta, a disegnare carte da gioco per la stampa, a mettere in opera cartoni per vetrate (magari su disegno di artisti più importanti di loro), ma soprattutto impegnati a dipingere "cofani" (cioè cassoni), spalliere e deschi da parto, rispondendo alle esigenze di una moda che si era largamente diffusa nella Firenze del Quattrocento tra le famiglie facoltose. Questa moda sembra allargarsi, via via che, sui soggetti galanti e novellistici più diffusi nei primi decenni del Quattrocento, prendono il sopravvento i soggetti di ispirazione umanistica, tratti dalla storia, dall'epica e dalla mitologia degli antichi, oppure (come accade frequentemente nel caso dello Scheggia) dai Trionfi del Petrarca. Con questo, i cassoni diventano il segno della crescente influenza degli umanisti, uno dei quali, Ugolino Verino, dedica un elogio in versi latini ad Apollonio di Giovanni e alle sue raffigurazioni di soggetti tratti dall'Eneide (33), che sono i favoriti anche
per i cassoni di questo collega e contemporaneo dello Scheggia. Lo Scheggia stesso sembra preferire, oltre che i Trionfi, i soggetti di storia romana.
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33. L’pigramma, composto da Ugolino Verino, fu pubblicato da E. H. Gombrich in un articolo su Apollonio di Giovanni comparso sul "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes" del 1955. Lo si può' leggere oggi in edizione italiana in E. H. Gombrich, Norma e Forma, Torino 1973, pp. 18-42. Grazie a questa composizione poetica, il Gombrich potè identificare Apollonio di Giovanni con l’attività del pittore fino ad allora anonimo chiamato Maestro del Virgilio o Maestro di Didone.
(In an overview, the brother of Masaccio appears to us as one of those Florentine painters of the second rank who founded his fortune on a smaller production but luxury items that were nonetheless widespread. They are painters who are busy painting tarot cards, preparing designs for embroidery, executing frescoes in poor greenterretta, coloring and painting reliefs in terracotta or stucco, drawing playing cards for printing, putting in place cartoons for stained glass windows (perhaps designed by artists more important than they), but especially busy painting "cafoni" (i.e. cassoni), headboards and birth trays, meeting the demands of fashion that were widespread in fifteenth-century Florence among wealthy families. This fashion seems to expand, gradually, to the gallant narrative [?: novellistici] subjects that were popular in the early decades of the fifteenth century, taking over subjects of humanistic inspiration, from history, from the epics and mythology of the ancients, or (as often happens in the case of Lo Scheggia) from the Triumphs of Petrarch. With this, the cassone become the sign of the growing influence of the humanists, one of which, Ugolino Verino, devotes a eulogy in Latin verse for Apollonio de Giovanni and his depictions of subjects drawn from Aeneid 33, which are also favorites for cassoni by this colleague contemporary with Lo Scheggia. Lo Scheggia himself seems to prefer, as well as the Triumphs, the subjects of Roman history.
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[Footnote] 33. The epigram, composed by Ugolino Verino, was published by E. H. Gombrich in an article on Apollonio di Giovanni that appeared in the "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes" of 1955. You can read it today in Italian in E. H. Gombrich, Norma e Forma, Turino, 1973, pp. 18-42. With this poem, Gombrich could identify Apollonio di Giovanni with the activity of the hitherto anonymous painter known as the Master of Virgil or Master of Dido.)
The last sentence suggests that the last name "Guidi" or "Guido" sometmes given to Lo Scheggia is anachronistic. According to Bellosi in the above, the period 1430-1460, roughly, was the time of Lo Scheggia's cassoni--and perhaps also his card-painting. But of course there may be later ones. Dating such cards as might be his, or the cassoni, more precisely depends on various factors: did the artist's style change after particular dates? Did the demand for that style of figure, the reclining nude (with or without those breasts characteristic of both the cassone and the card), change at some particular point?...Lo Scheggia, oltre che nel dipingere cassoni e deschi da parto, fu molto impegnato nella produzione di anconette e di Madonne col Bambino destinate a privati, ma non sembra avere avuto entrature per le grandi commissioni. Se come pittore di cassoni lavorò più volte anche per i Medici, i suoi affreschi e le sue tavole d'altare arrivate fino a noi sono quasi tutti destinati al contado. Ma la furbizia dello Scheggia fu proprio quella di rendersi conto dei propri limiti di artista e, conseguentemente, di specializzarsi come "cofanaio", dedicando quasi esclusivamente la propria attività ad un tipo di prodotto che vide fiorire un nuovo mercato per i pittori fiorentini del Quattrocento, del quale egli fu il più industrioso fornitore. Con questa attività egli dovette diventare di gran moda a Firenze fra il 1430 e il 1460 circa, popolare soprattutto fra le signore, visto, che i cassoni e i deschi da parto erano prodotti di destinazione femminile. Si può', forse, paragonare il suo grado di popolarità a quello dei grandi stilisti di moda dei nostri giorni. Così, potè tenere bottega nel cuore di Firenze e mettere assieme un cospicuo cespite, che gli permise certo di aumentare i beni di famiglia e perfino di lasciare in odore di nobiltà la propria discendenza, che da allora in avanti assunse il cognome Guidi, cioè il cognome di quella che era stata la più antica e potente famiglia feudale fiorentina.
(Lo Scheggia, as well as in painting caissons and birthtrays, was very involved in the production of anconette and Madonna and Childs to private persons, but does not seem to have had entry to large commissions. If as a painter of cassoni he also worked several times for the Medici,the frescoes and altarpieces that have come down to us are almost all destined for the countryside. But the cunning of Lo Scheggia was precisely to realize the limits of his artistry and, consequently, to specialize in the "cofanaio", dedicating his activities almost exclusively to a type of product that flourished a new market for Florentine painters of the fifteenth century, of which he was the most industrious supplier. With this activity he must have become all the rage in Florence between 1430 and 1460, popular especially among the ladies, seeing that casssoni and birth trays were products that targeted women. You can, perhaps, compare the degree of his popularity to that of the great fashion designers of our time. Thus he could keep a shop in the heart of Florence and put together substantial assets, allowing him certainly to increase the family's goods and even to leave the the odor of nobility to his offspring, who henceforth assumed the surname Guidi, that is, the last name of what had been the oldest and most powerful feudal family in Florence.)
In the back of the book Lo Scheggia is a list of his works, with tiny pictures of them. For dating, what is mostly given is one of three designations: juvenile (giovanile), of maturity (da maturita), and late (tarde). The particular cassone lid that has the person with the characteristic breasts (a Nudo, Bellosi and co-author Margaret Haines say, meaning either male or indefinite) is identified as a work of the artist's maturity.
The above is what is comparable to the tarot card (http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/sag ... za/t_3.jpg). In addition, there are three other similar cassone lids attributed to him. The two in Copenhagen are identified as mature works, and one as early. I think you can see why; it is more awkward than the others
There are better pictures of at least the first two on the web (e.g. at http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22Lo%2 ... =all&adv=1, 1st and 2nd rows), but I wanted something authoritative regarding the artist and date (or period) of execution.
So when is "juvenile" and when is "maturity"? Looking at the essay, I see the word "early" attached to works of the 1430s. The works of "maturity" are ones from the 1440s and 1450s. And "late" attaches to works of the 1460s and later. This does not necessarily mean that the division goes precisely by calendar decade. It is just that for pieces given a date, that is how they correlate with the three periods.
However it might be significant that one is early and none late. That suggests to me that lids with that subject were popular in his "early" and "mature" years but not later. (I could be refuted if someone knows of post-1460 reclining nudes on cassone lids, by any artist for the Floremtine market.) Or that he felt like doing such lids early and middle but not late. Given that the period of production starts early, i.e, before 1440, and stops, most likely the one we are interested in is from the earlier part of his "mature" period, i.e.from somewhat before 1460 but after 1440. In other words, within around 9 years of1449, the year of the Lorenzo birthtray.
The cassone in Florence that has the four triumphs Love, Death, Fame, and Eternity (they are not on the "Lo Scheggia" page of Wikimedia Commons, but I gave several views of all four at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=858&start=60) is also judged by Bellosi and Haines to be a work of Lo Scheggia's maturity. In contrast, the other cassone with Trionfi associated with Lo Scheggio (the one now in Siena, whose panels appear with the trionfi.com article by Franco, http://trionfi.com/evx-lo-scheggia, seen better at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lo_Scheggia) is a different matter. According to Bellosi and Haines, it is not only "late" but also has its figures painted by a different artist! The same goes for a cassone with the seven virtues that is sometimes attributed to Lo Scheggio.
For clarification, here is what Bellosi says (bear in mind that the term "Master of the Cassone Adimari" refers to an artist who only became identified as Lo Scheggia in the 1990s):
I have reproduced the page with the Triumph of Death, showing details by the two artists (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KiWJyyX3UO8/U ... page29.JPG). The pictures at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lo_Scheggia are also helpful for seeing the difference between the two styles.Se osserviamo le due fronti di cassoni con le Virtù e le Arti Liberali della Collezione Cambò, oggi nel Museo d'Arte di Barcellona, dobbiamo riconoscere che, mentre la seconda (fig. 47) si legge benissimo come un'opera tarda del Maestro del Cassone Adimari, la prima (fig. 48) se nè differenzia per qualcosa di più moderno e aggiornato alla pittura dell'epoca del Verrocchio, del Palliaolo o del giovane Botticelli, ma ad un livello d'arte molto modesto. Ora, lo Scheggia aveva un figlio, Antonfrancesco, che lavorava con lui come pittore; nato nel 1441 e morto prematuramente nel 1476, la sua presenza nella bottega del padre dovette incominciare a farsi sentire almeno a partire dal 1460-65 e la differenza che abbiamo notato in uno dei due cassoni di Barcellona si spiegherebbe molto bene con l'intervento ormai autonomo di Antonfrancesco (31).
Probabilmente i dipinti più antichi in cui sia reperibile l’intervento di Antonfrancesco sono i quattro pannelli della Pinacoteca di Siena con i Trionfi dell'Amore, della Castità, della Morte (figg. 49,50) e della Fama (32), dove le figure sembrano di Anton Francesco e i fondi dello Scheggia; commovente quello del Trionfo della Morte in cui si snoda in alto a sinistra un vivace corteo funebre fra un casolare di campagna e una chiesetta (fig. 49). E diverse altre opere rientrano in questo stesso problema della presenza di un collaboratore, modesto ma abbastanza diversificato, nella bottega del Maestro del Cassone Adimari, che si spiegherebbero bene con quello che si sa dello Scheggia e del figlio Antonfrancesco.
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31. Insieme a Monica Folchi, ho sviluppato queste osservazioni nel catalogo della mostra dedicata alla collezioni Cambó (AA, VV, Colleción Cambó, Madrid-Barcellona 1990, pp. 160-170), oggi quasi tutta nel Museu d'Art de Catalunya e Barcellona.
32. Se ne veda ora le schede di Laura Cavazzini nel catalogo della mostra II fratello di Masaccio: Giovanni di Ser Giovanni detto lo Scheggia, catalogo della mostra, San Giovannni Valdano, Casa di Masaccio, 14 febrerrio - 10 maggio 1999, Siena 1999], pp. 84-88.
(If we look at the two fronts of cells with the Virtues and the Liberal Arts of the Collection Cambò, now in the Art Museum of Barcelona, we must recognize that, while the second (fig. 47) reads very well as a late work by the Master of the Cassone Adimari, the first (fig. 48) is differentiated by something more modern, updated to the paintings of the era of Verrocchio and Palliaolo or young Botticelli, but at a very modest level of skill. Now, Lo Scheggia had a son, Antonfrancesco, who worked with him as a painter, born in 1441 and died prematurely in 1476; his presence in the workshop of his father had to begin to be felt at least since 1460-65. The difference we noticed in one of two cassoni in Barcelona is explained very well by the intervention of the now independent Antonfrancesco (31).
Probably the oldest paintings in which the intervention of Antonfrancesco is found are the four panels of the Pinacoteca di Siena with the Triumphs of Love, Chastity, Death (Figs. 49, 50) and Fame (32), where the figures seem to be by Anton Francesco and the backgrounds by Lo Scheggia, such as in the Triumph of Death where in the upper left a lively funeral procession winds between a farmhouse and a church (fig. 49). And several other works, modest but diverse enough, fall into this same problem of the presence of a co-worker in the workshop of the Master of the Cassone Adimari, which is explained well by what is known about Lo Scheggia and his son Antonfrancesco.
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31. Along with Monica Folchi, I developed these remarks in the catalog of the exhibition dedicated to the Cambó collections (AA, VV, colleción Cambó, Madrid-Barcelona, 1990, pp. 160-170), now almost all in the Museu d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.
32. See now the note by Laura Cavazzini in the exhibition catalog Il fratello [di Masaccio: Giovanni di Ser Giovanni detto lo Scheggia, catalogo della mostra, San Giovannni Valdano, Casa di Masaccio, 14 febrerrio - 10 maggio 1999, Siena 1999], p. 84-88.)
And below, the Liberal Art, Bellosi's fig. 47, is by Lo Scheggia; the Virtue, fig. 48, is by his son, according to Bellosi.
For more figures from these cassoni, I can offer Bellosi's fig. 9, which is all the Liberal Arts (Lo Scheggia), and the small picture at the end of the book that has both the Virtues (Antonfrancesco) and the Liberal Arts, but where it is not easy to make out the details.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XLmzVFVycoA/U ... page13.JPG
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ziL6GTFp50I/U ... Page75.JPG
Large color images of the Virtues panel can be seen online, e.g.
http://www.unannoadarte.it/dalgiglioald ... .%2018.jpg
And the Liberal Arts, at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... roject.jpg.
The Catalunya Museum site gives c. 1460 for this one, and 1465-70 for the other, which it attributes to Antonfrancesco (2nd and 3rd rows at http://art.mnac.cat/byCollection.html;j ... legatCambo). It seems to me a bit odd that two series often, at least in miniatures, done together would be separated by so many years, but I suppose it is possible, the son completing what the father began. The workmanship of the Virtues is indeed superior to that of the figures on the Siena Trionfi panels, suggesting a considerably later date.
We might ask, what do we make of the Charles VI virtue cards, based on what we have seen? Are they more in the style of the Liberal Arts or of the Virtues, or neither? I am no expert, but they seem to me more like the Virtues. We might also ask,are the Charles VI virtues more in the style of the Palliaolo Virtues (1470s, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_del_Pollaiolo, compare especially with Justice) or of the work of the mature Lo Scheggia? If the former, that is also the style of Antonfrancesco.
On the web I see an interesting "allegory of fortitude" attributed to Lo Scheggia that is very much in the style of the Charles VI virtues, including the octagonal halo (http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/inv18 ... %20Vecchio).
However this image is not included in Bellosi and Haines' list. It is hard to know whether to believe the attribution, presumably that of the museum (Museo di Palazzo Davanzati, Florence). Lo Scheggio is an artist who formerly had very little ascribed to him; now, on the web (http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/scheggia_lo.html), there is a large number, perhaps too many.
Then there are the Rothschild cards, which Phaeded has noticed bear resemblance to the Master of the Vitae Imperatorum's Fame, of c. 1440-1450 Milan, in a manuscript for G.S. (which I hypothesize as Ginevra Sforza, Alessandro's daughter (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=858&start=60#p13821)? These to me seem closer to the Catania (the "Alessandro Sforza"), as opposed to the Charles VI. The style, like that of the Catania, is earlier than that of the Charles VI, or so it seems to me.