Mantegna deck Temperance

Myrrha

I sometimes make color xerox enlargements of these cards to hang on the wall. Temperance has been up for a while now and I've just noticed that she appears to be levitating. Her robes seem to come down below her right foot before they rest on the ground and the ferret/ermine creature's paws are on the same plane as the robes. It is really hard to believe that the artist did this by accident as the brown robe almost encloses the figure's foot and really emphasises this look of floating. I wonder if floating a few inches off the ground is part of the renaissance iconography for temperance or chastity? Or maybe it expresses what is shown in the Marseilles deck by giving the figure wings?

It is also interesting that there is no water visible although you can tell by the way she holds them that the vases are not empty.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/mantegna/index.html

This is a small picture but I think you can see her foot is off the ground.

Myrrha (who is off to look for scan of Visconti Temperance)
 

MystiqueMoonlight

Hhhmmmm....interesting, I'm still deciding on this one :) Although there is water there take a look towards the bottom left hand corner of the card....the little animal is looking into a small puddle.
Temperance does indicate rising above a situation without any malice or going with the flow, knowing one's limits.....

Another interesting thing is the Arithmetic card...she is the only woman wearing socks on her feet.....
 

Myrrha

Hi Mystique, are you enjoying this deck? :)

Maybe it is just my imagination, but especially after looking at the feet of all the other figures it is hard for me not to see Temperance as floating. OTOH it is subtle and you have to wonder why the artist didn't make it more obvious if it was intentional.

I hadn't noticed the socks on Arithmetic! Hmm. This deck is just so full of questions for me.

There are 24 cards that have animals and 8 that have weapons. Only 6 cards have animals *and* weapons. 10 cards have musical instruments, only Rhetoric has a weapon and musical instruments, which makes sense.

There seems to be a book on this deck in Italian, I am tempted to try and get it and run it through bablefish.
 

MystiqueMoonlight

I haven't used it in a reading yet. So far I have lined them up in their respective groups and observed them.

They are visually stunning....
 

wavebreaker

I've done one small reading with them, and it did work. But it wasn't very in-depth because I don't know enough about the meanings of the cards. I think they are certainly usable for readings, but you would need to go more into the card meanings.
 

aeonx

Finally!
Someone else interested in this deck! :D

Right after noticing this thread, I ran off and fetched my copy. I was looking through the cards, 'cause I remember there were lots of peculiar stuff in this deck (like what cards have animals and so on). Then I spotted one thing I haven't seen before: Take out your Sun-card, and study it closely. Have you noticed the scorpio on the card before?? I'm stunned, as the scorpio, in most other decks I have, is on the Moon-card. On the other hand, the Mantegna Moon does not have any scorpio at all...

Explain please. :D

~aeonx~
 

aeonx

Other curious things:
* Compare card 35 Prudence to card 30 Theology. What the heck is that guy doing in her hair?? :rolleyes:

* In the B-string (the blue ones), only two cards do not have animals in them. These two are a 'part' of three, where the third has an 'animal' in it. Any thoughts?

* B-string again: All characters in the cards are holding something, either in one or both hands, except for card 39 Hope. In most cards, you can relate what they are holding to what they represent. Hope seems to be praying, and it may be difficult to portray 'hope' differently than this? I don't know any specific symbols for hope, do you? Like for instance the libra for justice.

~aeonx~
 

MystiqueMoonlight

Hhmm....I'm going to have to take a good look this afternoon and get back on this one....
 

Myrrha

aeonx said:
Finally!
Someone else interested in this deck! :D

Right after noticing this thread, I ran off and fetched my copy. I was looking through the cards, 'cause I remember there were lots of peculiar stuff in this deck (like what cards have animals and so on). Then I spotted one thing I haven't seen before: Take out your Sun-card, and study it closely. Have you noticed the scorpio on the card before?? I'm stunned, as the scorpio, in most other decks I have, is on the Moon-card. On the other hand, the Mantegna Moon does not have any scorpio at all...

Explain please. :D

~aeonx~

Hi Aeonx, it is great to find people to chat about this deck with. :) I don't know why the scorpion is on the sun card. It is strange, the sun was considered in traditional astrology to be hot, dry, diurnal and masculine while scorpio was considered cold, moist, nocturnal and feminine. So maybe it has something to do with opposites? I do associate scorpio with rebellious people who find new ways to do things and want to discover things, find out secrets. If the sun card shows Icarus falling after flying too close to the sun with his wax wings this could fit.

There were images used by alchemists where one figure is both male and female, perhaps to show that they had achieved a kind of unity of opposites and become whole. However the ones like that I have seen did not look like the figures on Theology and Prudence, they had bodies that were half male and half female as well, so maybe this is something different.

Although I am interested in finding out as much as possible about what the creators of this deck might have intended the symbols to mean it also seems important to find a more personal or intuitive meaning. So... what do the scorpion on the sun and the androgynous figures suggest to you?

Myrrha
 

Myrrha

And another thing . . .

Each muse has a white sphere but Poetry has a scene with hills and stars in hers. There is a lot going on in the Poetry card. A fountain in the background (for the source of inspiration?) a small stream (for the flow of inspiration?) She is pouring water (invisible water like in the temperance card) and playing the flute (or recorder?) at the same time. Umm, are we supposed to talk about our own interpretations in this forum or only the historically "true" ones?

Myrrha