The Cary-Yale Visconti

Huck said:

But if you think, that the city means Milan ... perhaps you can identify a building?

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Not the city, the region of Milan, with its interdependent cities, the 'buildings' are not naturalist portrayals of actual buidlings but ones of convention meant to represent urban centres so we have a state with the resources of several urbes vel nationes, a representation of a 'healthy state' as defined by Uberto Decembrio quoted in previous post.

Kwaw

Emulation, a sting to virtue

Frank Hall said:

I think, or I'd like to think, however, that the ultimate image in the series has some wisdom and harmony to it, more than mere Fame and the "Passing Glory of the World."

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From The Iconologia of Cesare Ripa

"Hesiodus proves, in the beginning of his book of the works and days, that a strife to honor and a good name is very honorable; because by this strife, the virtuous seem to strive with those who run with them, and seems to have a little advantage of him; hence comes the proverb: "Figulus figulum adit", "It is the one beggar's woe, that he sees the other give." And this we see amongst all artists of one Trade, how virtuous soever they be, that the one envies the other. This we see also among the Learned, that the one lessens and dispises another's work, for they envy the good name of their virtuous Countrymen; and it happens often, that they praise those, after they are dead, whom in their lifetime they have dispised. The student being moved through a certain envy of honor, which is occasioned in him by the sting of an honorable name, desiring to excell above all others and to be held the supreme above all others, and this makes him moil and toil to arrive at all the signs of perfection.
The hieroglyphic figure of the good fame is the Trumpet, signifying renown and a good name, saith Pierius. For the same animates the soldiers, and awakens them out of their sleep. The same does the Trumpet of a good fame, for she awakens a virtuous mind of the sleep of laziness, and causes them to stand always upon sentry, being willing to make a good progress in their exercises to get an [eternal] name of honor. The same does also the Trumpet among the soldiers, inflames their minds and makes them long for the Battle. The Trumpet of a good fame and honor, inflames also the mind with a sting of virtue; wherefore Plutarch speaks thus of moral virtue: "The lawgivers occasion in the cities love of honor and envy, but against the enemies they use Trumpets and flutes, to kindle the flame of wrath and desire of fighting." And certainly there is nothing that kindles the mind more to virtue than the Trumpet of fame and honor, and that especially in young men.
The crown, or garland, and palm adorned with Tassels, is a figure of the reward of virtue, by which the virtuous stand in a continual war and envy."

Kwaw

The Cary-Yale Visconti :World

Excellent quotation on the Trumpet and the Crown of virtue (post 62), Kwaw . So, it may mean more than a vainglorious moment of local history. Good. But could the "matron" be a kind of muse for the pleasant, peaceful area below? And why the great Crown between the two worlds of the Lady and the City/region? Virtue or virtuous achievement as the bridge between the Above and the Below? Or simply a central emblem for Virtue/virtuous achievement ? In the Renaissance, the crown often means sovereignty, empire, power, while also the Christ, from the crown of thorns. Here, in the Tarot image, it boundaries or bridges the spiritual and the temporal, Viirtue as symbolic idea (eternal) and virtuous community (temporal). --- so it seems to my interpretive searching.

kwaw said:

Not the city, the region of Milan, with its interdependent cities, the 'buildings' are not naturalist portrayals of actual buidlings but ones of convention meant to represent urban centres so we have a state with the resources of several urbes vel nationes, a representation of a 'healthy state' as defined by Uberto Decembrio quoted in previous post.

Kwaw

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... ... well, it's a picture and anybody is free to see, what he wants to see in his interpretation.
The card Fame is unusual as a Tarot card ... unusual as the 3 theological virtues, which also did not become part of the standard Milanese Tarot sequence.
A scenic representation, known well from 18th/19th century Tarot playing decks, is unusual between the allegorical cards of the Trionfi of 15th century.

But, why not, if it is identifyable and completely logical in a given context (marriage October 1441)? In the time of 1441 the Trionfi sequence wasn't settled.
A painter realised, what his commissioner asked for. Piccinino was an problem for the marriage and he was near to a general rebellion, in which other unsatisfied condottieri might have united - how to satisfy him, that he agreed in the peace? Promising Piccinino some fame instead of rewarding him with some things of real worth was a cheap solution.

Well, finally Piccinino joined the marriage celebration (? I'm not really sure) and had some longer talks with his old opponent (at least this is an old story).

The Cary-Yale Visconti : World

Huck said:

... ... well, it's a picture and anybody is free to see, what he wants to see in his interpretation.
The card Fame is unusual as a Tarot card ... unusual as the 3 theological virtues, which also did not become part of the standard Milanese Tarot sequence.
A scenic representation, known well from 18th/19th century Tarot playing decks, is unusual between the allegorical cards of the Trionfi of 15th century.... [Quotation continues.]

Yes, the "scenic representation" is unusual in cards of this place and time. I know this from visual observations and impressions, without much historic knowledge to claim. And I still wonder about that great Crown over the scene and under the Lady of Fame or Whoever. I can understand variant interpretations, even when keeping to the historic context. It's an enigmatic emblematic design which makes it alive and interesting.

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And I still wonder about that great Crown over the scene and under the Lady of Fame or Whoever.

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Perhaps all the interdependent cities and their territories that all fall under the rule of one crown, that of the Visconti [the sea port perhaps Genoa, that come under Visconti rule from 1409].

Kwaw

kwaw said:

And I still wonder about that great Crown over the scene and under the Lady of Fame or Whoever.
Perhaps all the interdependent cities and their territories that all fall under the rule of one crown, that of the Visconti [the sea port perhaps Genoa, that come under Visconti rule from 1409].

Kwaw

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There is a trumpet, which indicates the fame (in which Piccinino is imcluded for diplomatic reasons in the scene below) and a crown of the dukedom of Milan, which is offered together with a highstanding bride (it's a marriage deck in October 1441, perhaps it's Bianca Maria's face as "Fame" here), who marries a lower standing condottieri (Sforza) and promises this crown for later opportunity, a promise, which was redrawn short after the marriage, when the relations to the father-in-law (Filippo Visconti) cooled dawn.
And the scene shows Sforza on a white horse and Piccinino on a boat. A famous story, which happened during the war short before.

Hi Huck

I don't see that there is necessarily any contradiction in our two points of view. If we assume the deck is connected with the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti and Sforza, we may interpret the 'world' image as:

A portrait of the bride Bianca Maria above, represented as Fama [perhaps representing the fame and glory of the duchy of Milan], with a trumpet and crown in her hands; below her husband to be the condotierre Sforza in a landscape crowned by a crown, in the landscape of Visconti ruled territories promised him as part of his dowry, the duchy of Milan under a single crown from which the Maria/Fama figure above emerges.

The rare 'landscape' scene can perhaps be understood in relation to the use of Plato in the polemics of Milanese, Florentine and Venetian propaganda of the time; and in particular with description of Uberto Decembrio of the healthy state, in which he defines Milan in contrast to the Florentine or Venetian states, as interdependent cities and their territories under the rule of a prince [symbolized by the crown as intermediary link between the Visconti bride above and the condotierre Sforza below].

The odd figures of the fisherman and two men in a boat, perhaps relates to the story of Piccinino, one of the last condottierres to agree to the new peace solution represented by this marriage, and perhaps thus a symbol or representation of all those who agreed to it.

Kwaw

kwaw said:

Hi Huck

I don't see that there is necessarily any contradiction in our two points of view. If we assume the deck is connected with the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti and Sforza, we may interpret the 'world' image as:

A portrait of the bride Bianca Maria above, represented as Fama [perhaps representing the fame and glory of the duchy of Milan], with a trumpet and crown in her hands; below her husband to be the condotierre Sforza in a landscape crowned by a crown, in the landscape of Visconti ruled territories promised him as part of his dowry, the duchy of Milan under a single crown from which the Maria/Fama figure above emerges.

The rare 'landscape' scene can perhaps be understood in relation to the use of Plato in the polemics of Milanese, Florentine and Venetian propaganda of the time; and in particular with description of Uberto Decembrio of the healthy state, in which he defines Milan in contrast to the Florentine or Venetian states, as interdependent cities and their territories under the rule of a prince [symbolized by the crown as intermediary link between the Visconti bride above and the condotierre Sforza below].

The odd figures of the fisherman and two men in a boat, perhaps relates to the story of Piccinino, one of the last condottierres to agree to the new peace solution represented by this marriage, and perhaps thus a symbol or representation of all those who agreed to it.
Kwaw

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Peace is peace and war is war. When Platon's republic was used as a propaganda-tool during the war before, then in the moment of peace October 1441 nobody was really interested to point to the differences of the Milanese and Venetian/Florentine system.
But just an idea: there are reports of big intellectual fights of Florentine persons like Poggio for instance against the Milanese scholar Filelfo and likely they are from this time, ca. 1439-1440. Perhaps in these texts one might detect the platonic fight of the cities ... for the moment its just a suggestion, as far I understood it.

Huck said:

Peace is peace and war is war. When Platon's republic was used as a propaganda-tool during the war before, then in the moment of peace October 1441 nobody was really interested to point to the differences of the Milanese and Venetian/Florentine system.

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The Decembrio's and other humanists of the Visconti court were engaged as publicists and propaganda was a tool in both peace and war, seeking to elevate the status and cultural prestige of the Duchy of Milan and the Visconti. Such propaganda was ongoing, not limited to wartime, the very engagement of Chrysolarus at the court of the Visconti from Florence was in itself a 'cultural coup' in the process of such.

Kwaw