jmd wrote:OnePotato wrote:I personally don't think the direction of the Emperor makes any difference in the original intent.
If it DID, they would have made a point of consistently getting it right. I have no reason to believe that cardmakers didn't know what they were doing. In other words, I think he's facing "reversed" from the usual standard because it doesn't actually matter which way he faces.
The concept of left-to-right narrative is relatively modern, and is rooted in the later dominance of literacy and writing.
...except that the
dexter-sinister orientation was important even in heraldry... so there is a sense in which the direction the Emperor faces has importance. Also, the 'face of God' is at times described in profile.
I stand by the whole of what I said.
I did not mean to suggest that there was never ANY significance to left-right orientation prior to the rise of literacy.
Rather that the directional aspect of NARRATIVE has changed.
But regardless of that, if we are to accept your suggestion that the L/R orientation of the figure in this particular card carries some intentional, significant meaning, then I'm left wondering why several cardmakers seem to have overlooked this rule and depicted him facing the "wrong" way from the majority. Noblet, Heri, Solesio, Mayer and a few others are in the minority here. I find it hard to believe that they are "wrong", and even harder to believe that they are "right" and all others "wrong".
The circumstantial evidence suggests that this is all simply a function of how the reference image is transcribed onto the woodblock. The various renderings of the Mantegna deck are a good example of this phenomenon.
ETA:
The Morgan Visconte Emperor faces right.
The Carey Yale Visconte Emperor faces forward.