Hello Fauvelus.Fauvelus wrote: May I provide a somehow iconography-based hypothesis for the pedestal where our devil is standing.
It seems to me that the painter wanted to figure the devil as a pagan divinity (no wicca involved, I swear !) :
As a matter of fact, the medieval iconography uses to depict pagan gods (that is idol of pagan deities) as humanoid figures standing on columns or short pedestals :
Look for instance this picture of Goddess Isis worshipped by two followers (slightly reminiscent of the little chained devils on the card by the way) : the deity is standing on a capital-like pedestal (12th century greek manuscript):
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?D ... imageseule
Another of standing-on-column idol from a french XIVth century manuscript :
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?D ... imageseule
Seems to me that this representation of the devil must have been derived from a symbolic figure of the sin of idolatry.
I like this "iconography-based" approach.
I wonder if it could be possible to find images that are closer in time to the Tarot de Marseille cards we are discussing (the two images you propose are a few centuries older than these cards). I think it is likely that the image of the idol standing on the pedestal was adapted to the devil before tarot cards: maybe there are other examples of this kind of image in which the idol is replaced by the devil. I have been looking for examples, but with no results yet
Marco