Ross Caldwell wrote: 28 May 2022, 08:56
Regarding the Bon stemma, Delmoro consulted with those who curate the cards in Bergamo (she may have gone to study them herself, I'm not sure), see footnote 29 of page 77 (included above) and was able to verify that it is simply red and silver, with no design underneath. Like Samek-Ludovici in 1974 (mentioned in footnote 28 on page 77), who believed he could make out a figure in the silver part, you are seeing things that aren't there.
The theory would be that Sforza gifted Bon, probably Nicolò Bon, with the whole deck in 1458 or so. Several were lost, and replaced by de' Russi in the 1460s.
There are parallel horizontal lines going across the bottom third of the right side - some are choosing to not see things that are clearly there. A straight line is not the result of a randomly abraded illumination. It would be nice to see if any forensic testing would reveal a drawing beneath.
More problems, going back to our older discussions here:
Arms identification in Visconti-Sforza viewtopic.php?p=21761#p21761
If the primary color is silver on the right - oxidized to a dull gray as happens in all illuminations in manuscripts - then why are all of the smaller shields on the court cards a goldish hue, right next to dull gray oxidized silver, showing they are
not silver?:
Is it not more likely for the "calling card" of the Ace of Coins to have been tampered with over time with the too small shields on the horses' caparisons deemed to small to tamper with?
As for the Bon, I had mused in that older post that the Bon were "loosely connected to Colleoni through mutual Venetian patrons [namely Antonio Morosini], but that would mean an overpainting by Bon after they acquired it after Colleoni died at a later date." Perhaps the design I'm seeing - including the perfectly straight lines - are merely the marks of the scraping off of an original color (the base red still visible), followed by the over-painting with silver?
More specifics on Morosini:
The courting of Colleoni depended to some measure on the personal trust that had developed between the mercenary captain and nobleman Andrea Morosini, who served as intermediary between Colleoni and the Republic. The condottiere let it be known that he was interested in returning to the Venetian side although his demands were high: he wanted 100,000 ducats per year and appointment as captain-general....Both Dolfin and Sanudo [noted near contemporary Venetian historians] also report that another facet of the negotiations to rehire Colleoni involved a proposal for him to marry one of his daughters to Morosini's son Paolo, who was to in turn receive in turn a condotta with Colleoni's forces." Romano, Dennis, The Likeness of Venice: A Life of Doge Francesco Foscari, 1373-1457, 2007: 258)
The fact remains that Colleoni's home province of Bergamo was eventually granted to him by Venice after his defection from Sforza. Bergamo was painted in Sforza'
stemmario exactly as the stemma appears on the caparisons (however reversed they seemed to have gotten the gold/red actually used in Bergamo, this is the record of how the arms of Bergamo were conceived of
in Milan):
Of the reproduction of that work:
Probably the most famous of the stemmari Italian Renaissance among scholars and art historians from around the world, this lavishly illustrated manuscript – probable by Gian Antonio da Tradate – is preserved in the Biblioteca Trivulziana Castello Sforzesco di Milano, together with the magnificent treasures once belonged to the powerful and abundant family of Trivulzio. This code back to the years when the condottiere Francesco Sforza became Duke of Milan (1450-66) [others have narrowed it to 1461-66] … It reproduces – along with the coats of arms and enterprises members of the Ducal House – approximately 2000 coats of arms of families and municipalities of the Duchy, but also some families connected, for different reasons, to the Dukes: so you can recognize, for example, the coat of arms of Germanic Fugger merchants and bankers, or the Ducal Adviser Cicco Simonetta, Calabrian in origin, or of several powerful families of condottieri (Brandolini, Savelli, Orsini, Colonna, etc.) and Lords (Scaligeri, Este, Gonzaga, etc.). Stemmario Trivulziano, Carlo Magige, Edizioni Orsini De Marzo-Milano-2000
The Bon are not in it; I don't think any Venetians are. Luxury decks are expensive - there were plenty of other Venetian patricians more important to Sforza than Bon; one would almost have to assume he was gifting all of them in order to get down the list to the Bon. But this is all nonsense - its hard to imagine Sforza gifting any Venetian a luxury deck of cards outside of those already being bribed by him. After the Peace of Lodi the most likely candidate would be ruler-to-ruler, to Doge Francisco Foscari (just as another fellow ruler, Malatesta, received a deck from Sforza). Their respective banners, etc. interred in the church on the Venetian monastery island of St. Michelle due to the Augustinian friar, Fra Simone, who facilitated the peace.
We do know of Venetian Patricians accused of being bribed (and tried in Venice) by Sforza - the Bon are not among them. But again, the only evidence we have of Sforza card deck-gifting is to a ruler (even the Giusti reference is a Florentine deck to a ruler). Ostensibly that was the point of luxury decks - expensive gifts between rulers, hardly a novel thought.
So the timeline that makes the most sense to me:
* 1449 Sforza, with Colleoni as a lieutenant, is the Venetian Captain-General, sieging Milan. The Venetian patrician Marcello, over-seeing the Venetian contingent, is in his camp (and why Venetian grossone would be especially known in Sfroza's camp); Marcello acquires the Marziano deck during the siege of Milan, sparking the idea for expanding the ur-tarot, adding similar
Deificatione Sexdecim Heroum/"gods" (in this case, the 7 planetary gods, in keeping with Dantean source material)
* 1452/3 Sforza gifts the PMB to Colleoni and promises Bergamo, knowing that's what he wants but what Venice currently held (the territory had switched hands between Visconti/Sforza and Venice, it being much closer to Milan it was problematic). The Lion of St. Mark on the highest court card of the King of Swords is satirical, i.e., "I too was Captain-General for Venice, and then they tried to poison me - that's who you are going to go work for?" What else could that shield imply besides the office of Venetian Captain-General? Moreover, it is the militaristic knights that feature the Bergamo coat of arms - the fiefdom being held out to the condottiere Colleoni (with the caveat that the Milanese depicted the reversed arms that way).
* Morosini maintains his relationship with Colleoni as the one who brought him over to Venice and at some point acquires the cards.
* The Bon acquire the deck from Morosini, those families also have a long-standing relationship. Being artists, have no technical issue with scrapping/over-painting the ace.
Either Morosini or the Bon receive the deck in a condition in which some cards need to be replaced and have that done. Mid-1460s? Fine.
The alternate explanation:
* Sforza gifts the deck to Doge Foscari as part of the festivities to celebrate the Peace of Lodi, his artist botching Foscari's arms on the Ace of Coins (unlike the Milanese who carred the Visconti-Sforza arms, the Venetians did not carry the doge's arms but that of St. Mark, so Foscari's arms never seen in the field), and the lion of St. Mark on the king of swords shield as well as the Bergamo arms on the suit of swords all refer to the Doge's new Captain-General for Venice, Colleoni - Sforza making a visible gesture that he is OK with the loss of his most important lieutenant.
Either is possible.
Any other alternative would need to explain the oddities of the deck's knights and king of swords.
Phaeded
PS In my opinion there knights on the reverse of the medal of Visconti minted at the same time Sforza had his medal made and married the duke's daughter, also featuring a knightly horse, because Sforza was was expected to maintain Bergamo, a hilly city in the foothills of the Alps, while fending off Venice or even taking back its terra firma possessions (tower of St. Mark in the distant city-scape, beyond the mountains of the Bergamasque). Bergamo always had a heightened significance (maybe only Crema was more contested):