Maskelyne
The first thing I see in this card is the overall mandala of figured gold, the entire card being a rectangle cut out a couple overlapping disks of concentric shells. The upper shells are concentric to the dark circle centered somewhere near the Prince's root chakra. The lower shells ring the smaller circle similarly centered on the bull. The upper shells appear to step upward (out of the card surface), while the lower ones step downward. Like many Thoth cards, there are Escheresque juxtapositions of competing perspectives.
Secondly, I'm happily ignorant of whether the color scheme is in the official GD handbook, but I see strong contrasts between the tawny figures of Prince and bull and the somewhat more fiery sphere the Prince carries, the chariot, and the background disks.
Further examination of the contrast leads to the observation that the bits of bright outline around Prince and bull are evidence of a physical cut-and-paste on the original artwork. In addition, the bull's horns appear to be pasted on from another painting.
But getting back to the colors, there's a particularly good jump from the Princes muted fire tones and the luminous greenish fruit that fills his chariot. Is this how a harvest god goes to war?
The bull's muscular surfaces form a nearly symmetrical figure. If I start at the top and ignore the bull's eyes for a moment, I see a torso with the erect and recurved tail where head and neck ought to be. Working down from there, I can make out a beast from some surrealistic science-fiction version of reality. Or maybe that's just me.
As in other court cards, we are confronted by several faces. The Prince's face suggests southern Asia to me, Siamese, Indian, something. But his eyes are downcast and closed. We follow his sleeping gaze to the bull, whose eyes stare yellowly out at us. The animal vitality of the bull's face is the dominant personality here, as shown by size, intensity, and proximity. The third and smallest face in the picture, the third level of consciousness depicted, is the winged bull-head that crests the Prince's helmet. And the faceless s-f beast implies a fourth, right in the middle of the card, right at eye level. Hello.
Secondly, I'm happily ignorant of whether the color scheme is in the official GD handbook, but I see strong contrasts between the tawny figures of Prince and bull and the somewhat more fiery sphere the Prince carries, the chariot, and the background disks.
Further examination of the contrast leads to the observation that the bits of bright outline around Prince and bull are evidence of a physical cut-and-paste on the original artwork. In addition, the bull's horns appear to be pasted on from another painting.
But getting back to the colors, there's a particularly good jump from the Princes muted fire tones and the luminous greenish fruit that fills his chariot. Is this how a harvest god goes to war?
The bull's muscular surfaces form a nearly symmetrical figure. If I start at the top and ignore the bull's eyes for a moment, I see a torso with the erect and recurved tail where head and neck ought to be. Working down from there, I can make out a beast from some surrealistic science-fiction version of reality. Or maybe that's just me.
As in other court cards, we are confronted by several faces. The Prince's face suggests southern Asia to me, Siamese, Indian, something. But his eyes are downcast and closed. We follow his sleeping gaze to the bull, whose eyes stare yellowly out at us. The animal vitality of the bull's face is the dominant personality here, as shown by size, intensity, and proximity. The third and smallest face in the picture, the third level of consciousness depicted, is the winged bull-head that crests the Prince's helmet. And the faceless s-f beast implies a fourth, right in the middle of the card, right at eye level. Hello.
