3 Swords

I laid out all the RWS Swords last night and noticed how 3 Swords is the only image in this suit which does not include a human figure.

Instead there is a HUGE heart, pierced by three swords, some rain clouds and rain.

The heart is separate from the person?

Sorrow can sometimes be so great it can overwhem us absolutely?

I wonder why the artist drew the image this way. In other cards which deal with sorrow (the Cups suit for example), she has included human figures. Does anyone have any ideas as to whether there was a particular reason for this massive heart, and no other cbaracteristics of human beings?

It's frequently said that Colman-Smith may have been inspired by the 3 of Swords from the late 15th century Italian tarot deck, the Sola-Busca Tarot:

http://www.wicce.com/solabusca3swords.jpg

Thanks, RustyNeon ~

I actually have that deck - the Lo Scarabeo version.. I have not looked at it for a long time.

The similarities between the two images are striking but are not paralelled at all throughout the suit, The Sola Busca shows some of the Swords as being burdensome but nothing like the other RWS Swords.

It's difficult to imagine that Pamela Colman Smith was not inspired by the Sola Busca 3 Swords. Today she might have been sued for plagiarism LOL but it seems an idiosyncratic choice of concept alongside the other RWS Swords.

Interesting to see another example of Smith's blatant copying. In the thread about the Knight of cups and Death, her copy of Durer's engraving was also very noticeable, even though drastically more disguised than this . Until joining this forum, I hadn't looked for Smith's influences...but now I'd be willing to put money on finding many more of her cards that show VERY strong ties to other images.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. As an artist myself, I know that there are those who innovate and those who copy, and very few artists are 100% original and fresh ... but perhaps Smiths reasons were completely valid, and perhaps the reason that this card looks so different (without a human figure etc) is because Smith couldn't think of a better way to represent the 3swords, and so took the entire design.


D.

I am very attached to the thought of Pamela Colman Smith as being quite a remarkable artist and woman.

I guess when she was designing the RWS deck notions of copyright would not have been on anyone's agendas and PCS certainly might not have foreseen the RWS deck having world wide influence.

As you say, Dstar, Smith mays simply have been looking for a good representation of the meaning of 3 Swords.

Interestingly, the conceptual incongruency is not evident in the original Sola Busca. 4 Swords and 5 Swords also do not show human figures The 4 Swords are wrapped in a kind of laurel and the 5 Swords stand in an urn of some sort.

The heart is very dramatic though and I'd like to know more about the artist of the Sola Busca.

I can't help but think that, in the creation of the RWS scenic pip cards, Waite and Colman-Smith may have been inspired by 19th century Transformation Playing Cards.

Transformation Playing Cards
http://www.wopc.co.uk/transformation/

Earlier thread that I started about this:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=22319

Dstar said:

Interesting to see another example of Smith's blatant copying.

Click to expand...

How curiously hostile. Why accuse Miss Smith of such things on the basis
of one or two images, or could she have done better? Her choice of this
historic depiction (and it is so universal as to be a stand-alone symbol all
by itself) seems to me an honest choice by her. If this is "blatant copying"
then what about her use of Rainbows, or even the 4 actual suit symbols?

3 of Swords

Fulgour said:

How curiously hostile. Why accuse Miss Smith of such things on the basis
of one or two images, or could she have done better? Her choice of this
historic depiction (and it is so universal as to be a stand-alone symbol all
by itself) seems to me an honest choice by her. If this is "blatant copying"
then what about her use of Rainbows, or even the 4 actual suit symbols?

Click to expand...

Yes, it may seem disconcerting that the artist alludes to and even centers on a prior image, but Tarot is a living continuum of imaginations and re-imaginations, with no beginning and no end. The most important thing is our immersion in the image or series of images before us --- rising to the synthesis of visual art and invisible truth/archetype. As to the thrice-transfixed Heart, what could be a more powerfully evocative image of agonizing suffering, outside rationalization? Pamela found maximum intensity of expression.

There was no hostility intended.

My comment was based on surprise and interest. And that's why I added that she may have had completely valid reasons.

My fascination started when I found that her Death card matched the image of a knight on an engraving by the 15th century artist Albrecht Dürer, with 100% accuracy...Smith must have used this engraving to create the basis of Death and the horse, and as an artist this surprised me, because I would have expected that, if Durer's painting had been a big influence for symbolic reasons etc, then she would have used it as such, and not used Durer's as a base for the proportions and posture of the figures etc.

I read Tarot, but I am also an artist...and this comment, and this side of my fascination, was very much from an artistic point of view. I'm intrigued to know the process she used to create each card. Whatever method used does not detract from the finished result. Smith obviously used whatever method necessary to get the meaning across. And the Waite Smith deck is still, in my opinion, THE tarot deck.

So you see, there's no hostility, only fascination and a longing to understand her artistic approach

Love,

D.

Well, almost all her Majors were inspired by the Tarot of Marseilles and an awful lot of her ideas came from the Oswald Wirth deck (this is hardly ever acknowledged though.)

It's not really blatant copying. I mean, Tarot is Tarot. You have to stick to some basic rules, or else it ends up not even being REMOTELY connnected to tarot, but becomes something else. (Which is why a number of people are not too keen on scenic minors because they have doubts as to their relevance when it comes to Tarot.)

The same goes for the Courts. Most of Smith's courts were inspired also from the Marseilles and other older Historical decks.