Huck
Mantegna's Tarocchi and what Lazzarelli made of them
Lothar (autorbis) wrote:
We've the basic problem, that Vasari in 1550/67 thought, that "Mantegna engraved once Trionfi, and that his Trionfi were the best known at his time".
Art historians have stated more than once, that the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi are neither Tarocchi nor from Mantegna.
So there is an open question: From which Trionfi spoke Vasari? It's unlikely, that he invented the whole story. So "Mantegna engraved once Trionfi." - Vasari must have heard this story.
They are - with some probability - not the 50 Tarocchi, which are known to us as A- or S-series.
So our question is: "When Mantegna did engrave 'his' Trionfi?". It seems normal for art historians to see Mantegna's engraving phase after 1470.
But engraving was in Italy already after 1440. A young Mantegna experimenting with engraving is also logical - when he was not the "famous Mantegna" with enough commissions he naturally was the "normal young artist in search of a job". Experimenting with a young medium and technique - copperplate engraving - in such a phase of the "search of the young artist for the right way to express himself" looks normal. Mantegna "free phase" was 1448 - 1450. After this he always seems to have enough commissions - oil painting, not engraving.
Engraving proved itself in Italy not as "great" and "good paid art" in the first time of its existence. In 1448 - 1450 this was not necessarily decided, but it became evident in the course of years till 1470, when by invention of other printing techniques "engraving" also became necessary.
In the case, that Mantegna had an early engraving phase, then 1448 - 1450 looks ideal.
In this time Mantegna made a somehow "stupid" journey to Milan and afterwards he turned to Ferrara. Our report to this journey is silent about the "when" and "why", it just happened according to our report 1449.
The journey is "stupid", cause Mantegna lives in Padova and as citizen of Padua he was a Venetian - or better, a citizen of the Venetian republic. And 1449 is a year of active Milanese-Venetian war with the city of Milan in an insecure situation. Logically a presence of Mantegna in this city is a little absurd.
From 1449 we know, that a militaric leader of the Venetian republic has a very specific problem: He needs - very urgent - a Trionfi deck. Iacopo Antonio Marcello writes later (end of 1449) in his famous letter:
"Last year in the field of Milan, when I was in the camp of the highest and most celebrated leader Francesco Sforza, I was put in charge of the troops of our most illustrious republic, which he had relieved with assistance while we were waging war against Milan.
At that time it happened that Scipio Caraffa had just returned from the region of Provence, where he had spent the most delightful and refined time in the fairest comfort of your singular realm; and I considered most observantly his conversation concerning the best and happiest conditions of my lords. By some chance the conversation turned to this game, which is called “Triumph”, certain cards that had been offered to me and which I give as they were given.
When Scipio had seen them, being a thoughtful and diligent man, he said your Majesty would be very much pleased by them: and he urged exceedingly and immediately that they should be sent to you at the first opportunity. Thus indeed he affirmed that with them you might give considerations to divine things, as such great things are the business of royalty. Yours are of this kind; they are accustomed to being conducted any time you are unoccupied with many and various thoughts and subjects by means of these pastimes, that you might restore and revive in some measure the wearied mind. On account of this fact, nothing should be able to bring you anything unpleasant or disagreeable.
But these particular cards I regarded as unworthy of so great majesty (as indeed only the highest ornament and decoration ought to be seen by a king). In the desire of being satisfying to you, and being concerned for your spirit and study, I diligently set to work inquiring into how someone among the class of most highly skilled artisans of these things might be found. With the thought of such an enormous undertaking anguishing me vehemently, and taxing my resources, all the while my heart told me I should press on with it. "
http://trionfi.com/0/b/10/
From other later documents it is known that Marcello was commissioner to Mantegna. The connection between Mantegna and Marcello is logical, cause Marcello's living place is Monselice and Monselice is near to Padova, where Mantegna lives (till 1459, before his famous life-long stay in Mantua). From other sources it is known, that Mantegna had a close relationship to Girolamo da Cremona, a miniaturist, and that both artists "worked in cooperation", Mantegna getting the jobs and redirecting some of the work to Girolamo.
When Marcello in 1449 had the problem to look for artists to create the needed Trionfi deck, he naturally would have looked in Padova, cause it's likely, that he already was acquainted to the artists and knew aout their abilities.
The deck was of importance: In late Febr. 1449 Francesco Sforza introduced with warm words Marcello in a letter to Rene d'Anjou. In the course of the year (Spring/early summer ?), Marcello got an important job to work in militaric function for the Anjou interests in Italy - all this was important in the complex diplomatic strategies of the Venetian senate to settle the political situation of the time. The "present of the playing card deck" was important to cause or help specific personal decisions in militaric matters, operating a political alliance Anjou/Venice against Aragon in Naples.
Marcello had 1449 a technical problem .... and Mantegna 1449 appeared - against normal logic - in "Milan", which might mean, Mantegna appeared in the "Milanese region" and got the commission to create a Trionfi deck from Marcello.
The situation from Trionfi decks in 1449 is so, that we do not have much evidence of Trionfi decks.
We know, that Trionfi decks had been produced in 1442 in Ferrara in connection to Sagramoro, an experienced playing card manufacturer. Also there is suspicion about Cremona, it's possible, that already before 1449 Cremonese artists were active in playing card production, at least this is clear for the year 1452.
After his journey to Milan in 1449 Mantegna is said to have gone to Ferrara, from Milan Mantegna might have taken course to Ferrara via Cremona.
We have the result, that later Vasari speaks of "engraved Trionfi done by Mantegna, the finest of his time" and we have the result, that later the miniaturist Girolamo da Cremona worked together with Mantegna (naturally miniaturists could easily learn to make playing cards). Also we've the result, that the later socalled Mantegna Tarocchi had a "Ferrarese style" but Venetian motifs.
If we assume, that Marcello gave the job to Mantegna, it was naturally for Mantegna to inform himself about playing card production techniques and the best imaginable places for this specific Trionfi decks, as far we know about it, would have been Cremona and Ferrara.
As we know from Marcello, the whole (assumed) operation of Mantegna became good for nothing, cause Marcello solved his problem by getting the Michelino deck from ca. 1425. But nonetheless Mantegna would have tried to fulfill the plan, perhaps not knowing, that the problem was already solved.
In 1449 the papal jubilee year 1450 was near. If Mantegna started to create a sort of Trionfi deck, it might have been natural to chose the number "50" as an element of the deck - the jubilee year was intended to take place all 50 years. The later socalled Mantegna Tarocchi had 50 cards.
Whatever Mantegna tried to do there ... it ended in the trash of time. Marcello didn't use his Trionfi deck ...and the whole political situation ended in Venetian disappointment. Sforza took Milan and the year 1453 sees Rene d'Anjou fghting together with Sforza against Venice. Mantegna became a famous painter in oil colours, he knew about engraving, but it didn't became his occupation. And we do not have a single sign of "his Trionfi".
Or? That's unclear. For "technical reasons" Hind sees it as rather unlikely, that the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi were engraved before 1460. We see, that the development to the Mantegna Tarocchi went over the way Lazzarelli much later. But ... Lazzarelli took older motifs, which "he found in a book store". Lazzarelli illustrated with this "found" engravings or paintings his poem to the gods - which means, that he commissioned another painter to illuminate his manuscript. 23 of this pictures - new pictures - looked later like Mantegna Tarocchi, but they were illuminations, not "prints". Other pictures - also similar to the Mantegna Tarocchi - found a way in another Urbino manuscript; they are also "illuminations".
We estimate from all our studies to the problem and to Lazzarelli, that Lazzarelli or somebody of his surrounding formed the idea to the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi probably after 1475 - 1485 ... the question to the deciding engravers of A- and S-series is a specific question, which probably doesn't touch the person of Mantegna, but it seems, that earlier Mantegna engravings were involved in the process. It is reported, that Mantegna launched a serious attack on some engravers in the year 1475, cause they copied some of his paintings, engravings or whatever. This doesn't mean, that these attacked engravers naturally were producers of the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi, but it means, that Mantegna was copied in many ways and that Mantegna was in anger about this.
The Mantegna Tarocchi S-series contains on the Arithmetic-figure an inscription:
"1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10
(special sign maning "lira") 4 (special sign meaning "soldi") 85"
Probably this refers to the price of the deck (4 Lira, 85 soldi) - which is not an unlikely price. But probably this also refers to the year 1485 - (the sign for lira looks a little bit like a "1" and the sign for soldi a little bit like "no content).
If we assume for ths deck the production year "1485" and compare it to the Lazzarelli biography, then we see, that Lazzarelli finished in this year a work about the Christian calendar, probably a commission of the pope Sixtus IV. In the calendar of Lazzarelli Christian festivities are mixed with older pagan festivities, generally it may be assumed, that Sixtus had the plan of a calendar reform - which much later took really place in the year 1582. Lazzarelli's seems to have been a part of this plan, and his 50 pictures might have referred to something, which possibly already was intended by the Mantegna Trionfi experiment. "One year = 1 picture" inside a 50-years-calendar.
Sixtus IV. died 1484 - unlucky Lazzarelli, again a commissioner died before he finished his work. On Sixtus tomb - finished in the early nineties - we find
the Mantegna Tarocchi motifs Nos. 21 - 30 and 34 - 40. The motif Poesia is exchanged by Perspective - probably this refers to protests of the painters of the time, who wanted to state, that literature shouldn't be considered as "higher" than the work of the poets.
Comparing the pictorial presentations of the Pope inside the A-series to pictures of Sixtus IV - this might be Sixtus IV.
Datable elements of the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi in art (which are not much) before 1485 leads to the realisation, that a major part of them seems to point to activities around Lazzarelli. 4 "prints" of the 4 cardinal virtues inside a manuscript in St.Gallen from 1468 are the only printed elements "before 1485" - 4 prints do not prove the existence of 50 prints.
Lazzarelli seems to have been involved in the Accademia Romana, at least since 1479 - probably following an important marriage between a member of the court of Urbino to a papal relative in 1478. Lazzarelli - likely - had his stay before 1478 in Urbino. Some members of the Accademia Romana are addressed as "Cosmico" and "Chronico" (as "pseudoyms" or "new names") in poems, which appeared 1462 - 1468 ... Cosmico and Chronico are figures in the Mantegna Tarocchi, going back to astrononomical concepts of Sacrobosco in 13th century.
(with thanks to Michael Hurst:
####
"c.1230 Paris, France
Iohannes de Sacrobosco (John Holywood) an English monk and a
contemporary
of St. Thomas Aquinas, published a textbook on astronomy, De Sphaera.
This
was a widely known and influential text on the subject for several
centuries, and included discussions of the three "poetic" forms of
celestial rising, Cosmic, Chronic, and Heliacal. These are represented
in
the "Mantegna" cosmograph by corresponding allegorical figures. They
were
used to fill out the fourth decade, being placed beneath the seven
Cardinal
Virtues. An online version of De Sphaera is available at
http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/sphere.htm.
(See John Shephard's _Cosmos in Miniature_, 52-57.)
Joannes de Sacrobosco
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409b.htm
Johannes de Sacrobosco
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/sacrobosco.html
end Michael Hurst)###
Although used by an old text, it seems, that the termini Chronico, Cosmico and Iliaco were seldom used. Their appearance as "pseudonyms" in the circle of the ccademia Romana should mean something. Lazzarelli is praised in his own work to the Christian calendar in 13 poems by 11 poets. Some of these 11 poets could be traced back to the Accademia Romana, so it's clear, that Lazzarelli was known and near to the Accademia.
Lazzarelli appears first as the very young poet (16 or 19 years old) of a famous joust in Padova. The joust is sponsored by the current major of Padova, Foscarini, who was a former colleague of a similar rank and function as Iacopo Antonio Marcello in the Venetian republic, working in "diplomatic missions". It's clear, that Marcello and Foscarini knew about more than 20 years. In 1462 Marcello took the poltical function of Foscarini in Friaul, where Foscarini was involved in a literary circle. It seems a good opportunity, that Marcello and Foscarini had a longer talking which each other, especially as Marcello had returned from "private life" to political function in that time. Marcello then died 1464, and Foscarini made the joust in Padova 1466. "Jousts" were a sort of political feast especially common for Rene d'Anjou, it might well be, that Foscarini's joust goes back to an idea of Marcello, who was the Venetian political contact to Rene d'Anjou. The joust of Foscarini was connected to "Greek mythology" - Filippo Maria Viscontis deck was also connected to Greek mythology. It might be, that also this part of the festivity in 1466 goes back to an idea of Marcello. The joust took place in Padova, short after Marcello's death and Padova was a place, where Marcello once had served as Podesta (mayor). It might be, that the whole joust had the idea to remember the work of the passed Marcello.
When it's real, that Marcello once ordered the engraved deck from Mantegna, then Lazzaelli easily could have known the whole story in detail directly by the communication between Marcello-Foscarini.
####
Further material to the problem of the Mantegna Tarocchi will appear in the next days and weeks at
http://trionfi.com/0/g/
Huck said:
Lothar (autorbis) wrote:
We've the basic problem, that Vasari in 1550/67 thought, that "Mantegna engraved once Trionfi, and that his Trionfi were the best known at his time".
Art historians have stated more than once, that the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi are neither Tarocchi nor from Mantegna.
So there is an open question: From which Trionfi spoke Vasari? It's unlikely, that he invented the whole story. So "Mantegna engraved once Trionfi." - Vasari must have heard this story.
They are - with some probability - not the 50 Tarocchi, which are known to us as A- or S-series.
So our question is: "When Mantegna did engrave 'his' Trionfi?". It seems normal for art historians to see Mantegna's engraving phase after 1470.
But engraving was in Italy already after 1440. A young Mantegna experimenting with engraving is also logical - when he was not the "famous Mantegna" with enough commissions he naturally was the "normal young artist in search of a job". Experimenting with a young medium and technique - copperplate engraving - in such a phase of the "search of the young artist for the right way to express himself" looks normal. Mantegna "free phase" was 1448 - 1450. After this he always seems to have enough commissions - oil painting, not engraving.
Engraving proved itself in Italy not as "great" and "good paid art" in the first time of its existence. In 1448 - 1450 this was not necessarily decided, but it became evident in the course of years till 1470, when by invention of other printing techniques "engraving" also became necessary.
In the case, that Mantegna had an early engraving phase, then 1448 - 1450 looks ideal.
In this time Mantegna made a somehow "stupid" journey to Milan and afterwards he turned to Ferrara. Our report to this journey is silent about the "when" and "why", it just happened according to our report 1449.
The journey is "stupid", cause Mantegna lives in Padova and as citizen of Padua he was a Venetian - or better, a citizen of the Venetian republic. And 1449 is a year of active Milanese-Venetian war with the city of Milan in an insecure situation. Logically a presence of Mantegna in this city is a little absurd.
From 1449 we know, that a militaric leader of the Venetian republic has a very specific problem: He needs - very urgent - a Trionfi deck. Iacopo Antonio Marcello writes later (end of 1449) in his famous letter:
"Last year in the field of Milan, when I was in the camp of the highest and most celebrated leader Francesco Sforza, I was put in charge of the troops of our most illustrious republic, which he had relieved with assistance while we were waging war against Milan.
At that time it happened that Scipio Caraffa had just returned from the region of Provence, where he had spent the most delightful and refined time in the fairest comfort of your singular realm; and I considered most observantly his conversation concerning the best and happiest conditions of my lords. By some chance the conversation turned to this game, which is called “Triumph”, certain cards that had been offered to me and which I give as they were given.
When Scipio had seen them, being a thoughtful and diligent man, he said your Majesty would be very much pleased by them: and he urged exceedingly and immediately that they should be sent to you at the first opportunity. Thus indeed he affirmed that with them you might give considerations to divine things, as such great things are the business of royalty. Yours are of this kind; they are accustomed to being conducted any time you are unoccupied with many and various thoughts and subjects by means of these pastimes, that you might restore and revive in some measure the wearied mind. On account of this fact, nothing should be able to bring you anything unpleasant or disagreeable.
But these particular cards I regarded as unworthy of so great majesty (as indeed only the highest ornament and decoration ought to be seen by a king). In the desire of being satisfying to you, and being concerned for your spirit and study, I diligently set to work inquiring into how someone among the class of most highly skilled artisans of these things might be found. With the thought of such an enormous undertaking anguishing me vehemently, and taxing my resources, all the while my heart told me I should press on with it. "
http://trionfi.com/0/b/10/
From other later documents it is known that Marcello was commissioner to Mantegna. The connection between Mantegna and Marcello is logical, cause Marcello's living place is Monselice and Monselice is near to Padova, where Mantegna lives (till 1459, before his famous life-long stay in Mantua). From other sources it is known, that Mantegna had a close relationship to Girolamo da Cremona, a miniaturist, and that both artists "worked in cooperation", Mantegna getting the jobs and redirecting some of the work to Girolamo.
When Marcello in 1449 had the problem to look for artists to create the needed Trionfi deck, he naturally would have looked in Padova, cause it's likely, that he already was acquainted to the artists and knew aout their abilities.
The deck was of importance: In late Febr. 1449 Francesco Sforza introduced with warm words Marcello in a letter to Rene d'Anjou. In the course of the year (Spring/early summer ?), Marcello got an important job to work in militaric function for the Anjou interests in Italy - all this was important in the complex diplomatic strategies of the Venetian senate to settle the political situation of the time. The "present of the playing card deck" was important to cause or help specific personal decisions in militaric matters, operating a political alliance Anjou/Venice against Aragon in Naples.
Marcello had 1449 a technical problem .... and Mantegna 1449 appeared - against normal logic - in "Milan", which might mean, Mantegna appeared in the "Milanese region" and got the commission to create a Trionfi deck from Marcello.
The situation from Trionfi decks in 1449 is so, that we do not have much evidence of Trionfi decks.
We know, that Trionfi decks had been produced in 1442 in Ferrara in connection to Sagramoro, an experienced playing card manufacturer. Also there is suspicion about Cremona, it's possible, that already before 1449 Cremonese artists were active in playing card production, at least this is clear for the year 1452.
After his journey to Milan in 1449 Mantegna is said to have gone to Ferrara, from Milan Mantegna might have taken course to Ferrara via Cremona.
We have the result, that later Vasari speaks of "engraved Trionfi done by Mantegna, the finest of his time" and we have the result, that later the miniaturist Girolamo da Cremona worked together with Mantegna (naturally miniaturists could easily learn to make playing cards). Also we've the result, that the later socalled Mantegna Tarocchi had a "Ferrarese style" but Venetian motifs.
If we assume, that Marcello gave the job to Mantegna, it was naturally for Mantegna to inform himself about playing card production techniques and the best imaginable places for this specific Trionfi decks, as far we know about it, would have been Cremona and Ferrara.
As we know from Marcello, the whole (assumed) operation of Mantegna became good for nothing, cause Marcello solved his problem by getting the Michelino deck from ca. 1425. But nonetheless Mantegna would have tried to fulfill the plan, perhaps not knowing, that the problem was already solved.
In 1449 the papal jubilee year 1450 was near. If Mantegna started to create a sort of Trionfi deck, it might have been natural to chose the number "50" as an element of the deck - the jubilee year was intended to take place all 50 years. The later socalled Mantegna Tarocchi had 50 cards.
Whatever Mantegna tried to do there ... it ended in the trash of time. Marcello didn't use his Trionfi deck ...and the whole political situation ended in Venetian disappointment. Sforza took Milan and the year 1453 sees Rene d'Anjou fghting together with Sforza against Venice. Mantegna became a famous painter in oil colours, he knew about engraving, but it didn't became his occupation. And we do not have a single sign of "his Trionfi".
Or? That's unclear. For "technical reasons" Hind sees it as rather unlikely, that the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi were engraved before 1460. We see, that the development to the Mantegna Tarocchi went over the way Lazzarelli much later. But ... Lazzarelli took older motifs, which "he found in a book store". Lazzarelli illustrated with this "found" engravings or paintings his poem to the gods - which means, that he commissioned another painter to illuminate his manuscript. 23 of this pictures - new pictures - looked later like Mantegna Tarocchi, but they were illuminations, not "prints". Other pictures - also similar to the Mantegna Tarocchi - found a way in another Urbino manuscript; they are also "illuminations".
We estimate from all our studies to the problem and to Lazzarelli, that Lazzarelli or somebody of his surrounding formed the idea to the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi probably after 1475 - 1485 ... the question to the deciding engravers of A- and S-series is a specific question, which probably doesn't touch the person of Mantegna, but it seems, that earlier Mantegna engravings were involved in the process. It is reported, that Mantegna launched a serious attack on some engravers in the year 1475, cause they copied some of his paintings, engravings or whatever. This doesn't mean, that these attacked engravers naturally were producers of the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi, but it means, that Mantegna was copied in many ways and that Mantegna was in anger about this.
The Mantegna Tarocchi S-series contains on the Arithmetic-figure an inscription:
"1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10
(special sign maning "lira") 4 (special sign meaning "soldi") 85"
Probably this refers to the price of the deck (4 Lira, 85 soldi) - which is not an unlikely price. But probably this also refers to the year 1485 - (the sign for lira looks a little bit like a "1" and the sign for soldi a little bit like "no content).
If we assume for ths deck the production year "1485" and compare it to the Lazzarelli biography, then we see, that Lazzarelli finished in this year a work about the Christian calendar, probably a commission of the pope Sixtus IV. In the calendar of Lazzarelli Christian festivities are mixed with older pagan festivities, generally it may be assumed, that Sixtus had the plan of a calendar reform - which much later took really place in the year 1582. Lazzarelli's seems to have been a part of this plan, and his 50 pictures might have referred to something, which possibly already was intended by the Mantegna Trionfi experiment. "One year = 1 picture" inside a 50-years-calendar.
Sixtus IV. died 1484 - unlucky Lazzarelli, again a commissioner died before he finished his work. On Sixtus tomb - finished in the early nineties - we find
the Mantegna Tarocchi motifs Nos. 21 - 30 and 34 - 40. The motif Poesia is exchanged by Perspective - probably this refers to protests of the painters of the time, who wanted to state, that literature shouldn't be considered as "higher" than the work of the poets.
Comparing the pictorial presentations of the Pope inside the A-series to pictures of Sixtus IV - this might be Sixtus IV.
Datable elements of the socalled Mantegna Tarocchi in art (which are not much) before 1485 leads to the realisation, that a major part of them seems to point to activities around Lazzarelli. 4 "prints" of the 4 cardinal virtues inside a manuscript in St.Gallen from 1468 are the only printed elements "before 1485" - 4 prints do not prove the existence of 50 prints.
Lazzarelli seems to have been involved in the Accademia Romana, at least since 1479 - probably following an important marriage between a member of the court of Urbino to a papal relative in 1478. Lazzarelli - likely - had his stay before 1478 in Urbino. Some members of the Accademia Romana are addressed as "Cosmico" and "Chronico" (as "pseudoyms" or "new names") in poems, which appeared 1462 - 1468 ... Cosmico and Chronico are figures in the Mantegna Tarocchi, going back to astrononomical concepts of Sacrobosco in 13th century.
(with thanks to Michael Hurst:
####
"c.1230 Paris, France
Iohannes de Sacrobosco (John Holywood) an English monk and a
contemporary
of St. Thomas Aquinas, published a textbook on astronomy, De Sphaera.
This
was a widely known and influential text on the subject for several
centuries, and included discussions of the three "poetic" forms of
celestial rising, Cosmic, Chronic, and Heliacal. These are represented
in
the "Mantegna" cosmograph by corresponding allegorical figures. They
were
used to fill out the fourth decade, being placed beneath the seven
Cardinal
Virtues. An online version of De Sphaera is available at
http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/sphere.htm.
(See John Shephard's _Cosmos in Miniature_, 52-57.)
Joannes de Sacrobosco
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409b.htm
Johannes de Sacrobosco
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/sacrobosco.html
end Michael Hurst)###
Although used by an old text, it seems, that the termini Chronico, Cosmico and Iliaco were seldom used. Their appearance as "pseudonyms" in the circle of the ccademia Romana should mean something. Lazzarelli is praised in his own work to the Christian calendar in 13 poems by 11 poets. Some of these 11 poets could be traced back to the Accademia Romana, so it's clear, that Lazzarelli was known and near to the Accademia.
Lazzarelli appears first as the very young poet (16 or 19 years old) of a famous joust in Padova. The joust is sponsored by the current major of Padova, Foscarini, who was a former colleague of a similar rank and function as Iacopo Antonio Marcello in the Venetian republic, working in "diplomatic missions". It's clear, that Marcello and Foscarini knew about more than 20 years. In 1462 Marcello took the poltical function of Foscarini in Friaul, where Foscarini was involved in a literary circle. It seems a good opportunity, that Marcello and Foscarini had a longer talking which each other, especially as Marcello had returned from "private life" to political function in that time. Marcello then died 1464, and Foscarini made the joust in Padova 1466. "Jousts" were a sort of political feast especially common for Rene d'Anjou, it might well be, that Foscarini's joust goes back to an idea of Marcello, who was the Venetian political contact to Rene d'Anjou. The joust of Foscarini was connected to "Greek mythology" - Filippo Maria Viscontis deck was also connected to Greek mythology. It might be, that also this part of the festivity in 1466 goes back to an idea of Marcello. The joust took place in Padova, short after Marcello's death and Padova was a place, where Marcello once had served as Podesta (mayor). It might be, that the whole joust had the idea to remember the work of the passed Marcello.
When it's real, that Marcello once ordered the engraved deck from Mantegna, then Lazzaelli easily could have known the whole story in detail directly by the communication between Marcello-Foscarini.
####
Further material to the problem of the Mantegna Tarocchi will appear in the next days and weeks at
http://trionfi.com/0/g/
