Before we get much further, I want to give you my report on the Italian web articles you referred me to at http://www.storiadimilano.it/Arte/minia ... 0Zavattari (added in 2012: it may be accessed at http://www.storiadimilano.it/Arte/minia ... #I%20Bembo), so that others may benefit from its information.But I don't know why you referred me there. Except on one point—attributing the cards to other members of the family rather than Bonifacio—they seem to go against everything you say.
The article on the Bembos has the most to say about the cards. The author, Maria Grazia Tolfo, first mentions Andrea Bembo, who did an “Adoration of the Magi” in 1423 for the chapel of Palla Strozzi in Saint Trinita in Florence. He then set up shop in Cremona with his brothers Giovanni and Girolamo and stopped producing under his own name. The article goes on:
“La bottega vantava un'altra peculiarità: si occupava di mazzi di carte, attività secondaria, ma abbastanza lucrosa. Ed ecco che l'esperienza di Andrea Bembo maturata alla pittura cortese di Gentile produsse il primo mazzo di carte, noto come mazzo Visconti di Modrone, in occasione del matrimonio di Filippo Maria con Maria di Savoia nel 1428. Chi fornì i modelli degli abiti? Forse Pisanello, il maggior stilista dell'epoca! Sono veramente eccessivi questi abiti per Filippo Maria, che non s'interessò mai di moda, ma andavano bene per raffigurare un corteo nuziale, tema poco diverso in quanto ad ostentazione di lusso da un corteo di Magi. Il mazzo, ora a Yale, ebbe successo e servì da modello sia per il successivo mazzo Brambilla, con vestiti aggiornati al 1442, sia per quello in occasione delle nozze tra Bianca Maria Visconti e Francesco Sforza, meno sfarzoso ma di grande successo iconografico, noto come mazzo Colleoni o Tarocchi dei Visconti.
The shop features another peculiarity: it occupied itself with decks of cards, secondary but lucrative enough. And here the experience gained by Andrea Bembo in painting courtly love for Gentile produce the first deck of cards, known as the Visconti di Madrone, on the occasion of the marriage of Filippo Maria with Maria of Savoy in 1428. Who furnished the models for the clothes? Perhaps Pisanello, the greatest stylist of the epoch! These clothes are really excessive for Philippo Maria, who never was interested in fasion, but did well in picturing a marriage procession, a theme little different in flaunting luxurious ostentation than a procession of the Magi. The deck, now a Yale, was succesful and served as a model both for the Brera-Brambilla that followed, with its clothing updaed to 1442, and for that of the wedding of Bianca Maria Visconti and Frencesco Sforza, less gorgeous but of great iconographic success, known as the Colleoni deck or Tarot of Visconti.”
So Andrea Bembo, according to this writer (Maria Grazia Tolfo), was the guiding light behind the Cary-Yale deck, modeling it on an earlier Adoration of the Magi! And Pisanello (perhaps) designed the clothes. Tolfo apparently relies mainly on clothing styles to date the decks, since she says the clothing was “updated” to 1442 for the Brera-Brambilla. The Colleoni is what we call the PMB. I can’t tell whether she considers it later than the Brera-Brambilla or not. On the one hand, she lists it last. On the other, the wedding was in 1441.
Tolfo continues:
“Quella dei Bembo è una tipica bottega a conduzione familiare. Insieme a Giovanni lavoravano i figli Lazzaro, Gerolamo, Ambrogio, Benedetto e Bonifacio; lo stile era comune a tutti, un po' bamboccesco, come di pupi che si muovevano su un teatrino. Oltre ai mazzi di carte, la bottega decorava anche armadi e le tavolette dei soffitti lignei, come quello di Casa Meli a Cremona (in parte al Museo di Cremona), affrescava case di privati cremonesi, cappelle gentilizie ed edifici pubblici.
The Bembos have a typical family-run shop. Giovanni’s children Lazzaro, Gerolamo, Ambrogio, Benedict and Bonifacio worked together with them; the style was common to everybody, some bamboccesco, like puppets being moved in a little theatre. Besides decks of cards, the shop decorated closets and wooden ceiling panels, like that of the House Meli Cremona (partly at the Museum of Cremona), private houses in Cremona, noble chapels and public buildings.”
So they did do other things besides frescoes. She goes on to describe how the manuscript “Historia di Lancillotto” was a later product of the family, with its 289 drawings in ink and traces of pencil, no color. She says there is some confusion about which of the Bembos did these drawings, Ambrogio or Lazzaro:
...e allora ecco che Ambrogio Bembo per perizia "calligrafica" diventa l'autore dell'Historia di Lancillotto e quindi dei Tarocchi che erano assegnati allo stesso maestro dell'Historia. Ma la chiarezza è durata poco, perché dopo il ritrovamento di altre "prove" il povero Ambrogio è già scalzato a favore del fratello Lazzaro.
...here Ambrogio Bembo for his "calligraphic" skill becomes the author of the "Historia di Lancillotto” and therefore of the Tarocchi that was assigned to the same master of the Historia. But the clarity is of little duration, because after the discovery of other "proof," poor Ambrogio already is undermined in favor of his brother Lazzaro.”
I guess these comments might be one source for your suggestion that we not focus on Bonifacio, but consider other members and the family in general. She doesn’t say which deck is similar to the “Lancelot,” as far as I can tell. For her, it must be either the Brera-Brambilla of “1442” or the PMB of “1441,” since neither of the candidates would have been painting in 1428.
Let us move on to the Zavattari. Our art historian describes how Franceschino and his son Gregorio began work on the Teodolinda chapel in 1444. She goes on:
"La campagna di affresco proseguì per due anni e la bottega non si fece scrupolo di usare come modelli per le figure le carte da gioco dei Bembo (o fu una citazione voluta e autorizzata?). Questa trasposizione ha ingenerato per decenni un'autentica confusione su chi aveva dipinto i mazzi di carte, attribuendone la paternità agli Zavattari.
The fresco campaign continued for two years, and the shop had no scruples about using the playing cards of the Bembos as a model for them (or was it an intended and authorized citation?). This transposition has generated for decades an authentic confusion about who had painted the decks of cards, attributing their paternity to the Zavattari."
To make sure I understood this paragraph correctly, I had an Italian friend go over the translation. The version above is with her approval.
Our art historian agrees that the chapel is similar to the cards, but says it was because the Zavattari, either on their own or under orders, used the cards as a model. She doesn’t say which deck they used. I would assume either the Cary-Yale or the Brera-Brambilla, since the third deck would have been on the Venetian side of Italy with its owners. Never mind that the clothing style in the chapel is different from that of either of these decks.
And that is all she says relating to the cards. I won’t say much about these articles. I suspect she is right about the clothing style of the CY. For example, here is a fresco of Teodelinda which seems somewhat earlier than the Zavattari’s, given the lack of detail in the faces and the medieval look. I can’t find any attribution given on the websites where it appears. The one below comes from http://www.comune.monza.mi.it/rd/la_tua_citta/10789.htm). There must be higher resolution images of it somewhere on the Web.
Tedodolinda’s clothing above seems to me to fit the Cary-Yale better than the people in the Zavattari’s chapel . Look at the Female Page of Batons in my earlier post, for example. The Brera-Brambilla's clothing is similar to that of the CY, except that the Visconti heraldic devices don't appear on it and the sleeves are a little different. At least that is my impression. I am no expert on 15th century Italian fashions.
But are clothing styles a good way to date decks, ignoring considerations of artistic style, which point to a later execution? The Zavattari faces are closer to the CY’s in style, but not the clothes. And what about the coins in the suit of Coins? Would there have been ducats in 1428 like those we see in the cards? I do not mean these questions rhetorically. just don't know the answers.
I am beginning to care less and less what individuals or families painted the decks and at what date. All I really want to say for sure is that the Michelino is before the CY and the BB, and the PMB is after the CY and the BB. But I will keep reading Italian websites in hopes of enlightenment. They certainly follow a different line of thought than writers in English. Tolfo has another web-page in which she discusses the Michelino and says more about the other decks. I will try to figure it out.
Re: "The 5x14 Theory: An Investigation" part II
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Last edited by mikeh on 07 Jun 2012, 22:06, edited 1 time in total.