Looking for Tarot in Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura

Tarot in Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura

It is not a large room: about 50 square meters. You enter through one of the two small doors in the slightly longer walls. The room is now empty: the books of Julius have disappeared. The floor is adorned by a mosaic of many colors, made in the style of the Norman and Arab mosaics you can see in Sicily. The walls and the ceiling are entirely covered with paintings by Raphael.

The School of Athens is right in front of you. The scene is crowded with tens of philosophers talking to each other, writing, thinking, walking. They inhabit a fantastic architecture, something that looks both like a catholic church and a classical temple. The walls are decorated by statues of the ancient gods. On Aristotle's side is Minerva, goddess of knowledge and war, with her shield and spear. Raphael has put himself on Minerva's side, at the border of the painting. On Plato's side, Apollo, the god of Poetry, naked and relaxed, holds his lyre.

The wall on your left presents a group of three women. You recognize the allegories of three Virtues: Strength (with the lion), Prudence (with the mirror) and Temperance (with the reins).
Two smaller paintings at the sides of the window represent Emperor Justinianus and Pope Gregory IX.

On the wall at your right side you meet Apollo again. He is playing is viola, triumphant, in the middle of the scene, on the top of Mount Parnassus. Around him the muses and the best poets of all times: Homer, Dante, Petrarch and many others.

In front of the School of Athens you see the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament: a complex vision in which the terrestrial and celestial champions of faith are gathered around the Eucharist. The division between high and low coexists with a division between left and right, representing active faith (Saint Girolamus, Beato Angelico) on the left and contemplative faith (Saint Bonavenura, Saint Thomas, Dante) on the right.

The ceiling presents four circular paintings and four rectangular paintings by Raphael. The circles represent the four faculties of the medieval universities: Theology, Poetry, Philosophy and Jurisprudence (Justice). The choice of the other four subjects aims at representing the interaction between the two principles in the circular paintings around each square: Apollo (for the third time) and Marsia, Astronomy (or maybe the "Primus Mobilis" / "First Mover"), Salomon's judgment, Adam and Eve.


What is the relation with Tarot?

The topic has already been touched a few times. I found this thread particularly rich of ideas:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=34729&page=6&pp=10

In my opinion, a close analogy with the Mantegna Tarot is evident. Both series of images are “Cosmographs”: graphical representations of the universe. The Mantegna Tarot (see attachment) has two Apollos (the first is the king of the muses, the second is the Sun) and one Minerva (Philosophy). Much more could be said about the analogies between these two Cosmographs.

The Sola-Busca Tarot also presents Apollo (Apolino) and Minerva (Pallas), though still represented in a pre-classical, medieval style.

For more classical Tarot decks analogies are maybe less evident but some can still be found: the Virtues, of course; Adam and Eve as the Lovers; Jesus in the Dispute as the World (in particular, the Vieville deck version).

What do you think?
More ideas or associations?

Marco

Raphael's Tarot

Hmmn. Though I have been in that room, my recollection is unclear, and I'll have to look up some detailed images of the scenes and figures you mention.

In other places, I recall "Theology" (referred to in ages past as the "Mother of the Sciences") was depicted as a seated and very pregnant woman. Rather like the card image we refer to as "The Empress".

P.S. I was once told that the so-called "Mantegna Tarot" was commissioned by a Pope, rather like the Borgia Apartments!

NightWing said:

In other places, I recall "Theology" (referred to in ages past as the "Mother of the Sciences") was depicted as a seated and very pregnant woman. Rather like the card image we refer to as "The Empress".

Click to expand...

NightWing, are you thinking of a particular version of the Empress?
While looking at images of the ceiling of the room i noticed that the Prime Mover (or Astronomy). The similarity is good in particular with Bodet's version: in both cases the spheres represent the sky, not the Earth. See attachment.

NightWing said:

I was once told that the so-called "Mantegna Tarot" was commissioned by a Pope, rather like the Borgia Apartments!

Click to expand...

Alessandro VI Borgia was the predecessor and great enemy of Giulio II Della Rovere. Also Alesssandro left wonderful rooms in the Vatican. In those frescos the histories of the Egyptian god Api are represent. Quite curious in the apartments of a pope

Marco

To Clarify

DoctorArcanus said:

NightWing, are you thinking of a particular version of the Empress?

Click to expand...

Sorry. Yes, I was in fact. The RWS decks and most clones of that tradition feature a pregnant woman, often surrounded by symbols of fruition, harvest, and general fecundity. I realize that decks prior to 1900 have a variety of versions of "The Empress". But many early decks do have an image of a woman who certainly appears to be pregnant (and hence motherly) on a card that though often untitled, would seem to be the equivalent of "The Empress" of more recent times.

Theology as "Mother of the Sciences" and her Wheel

The idea of Thology as Mother of the Sciences is excellent, and Raphael's really looks pregnant.
I thought I would have found a confirmation in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, but, with my surprise, I found a Wheel in Ripa's Teology:

Cesare Ripa said:

A Lady with two Faces unlike one another; looking with the yongest toward Heaven; and upon the Earth with the old Face: sits upon a Globe full of Stars: her right Hand on her Breast, her left toward the Earth; holding up her Train, a Wheel by it.

The Wheel denotes Divinity, not touching the Earth but by its Circumference; so should a Divine keep himself uspotted from the World. Sitting upon the Globe shows that Divinity reposes in no inferior thing: her Hands, Gravity. The Skirt of her Garment shows that some Part of Divinity extends to low Things, tho' necessary.

Click to expand...

Marco