Hi Michael,
mjhurst said:
Given what we've learned about the subject matter of the image out of context, what meaning(s) can make sense of it in context, i.e., in the overall trump hierarchy? Specifically, why does it follow the lower-ranked cards (most significantly Time/Hermit and Fortune) and come directly before Death?
"What does this mean in Tarot" is a question which we should be able to answer.
I agree, we know plenty, and can make a fairly informed guess as to how a person in circa. 1445 would have understood this image immediately. The closest historical use of it to the appearance of the game of
trionfi is the Albizzi
infamanti painted by Andrea del Castagno in Florence in 1440, after the battle of Anghiari against Milanese forces.
Following Kwaw's comments and things you've said to me, I'll give interpretation a shot.
The only thing we can be absolutely sure of about the position of the Traitor is that he comes immediately before Death - always, without exception, in every known order.
What he himself trumps varies only a little - between the
Old Man/Time (as such in the majority of early recorded orderings, including the two earliest C orderings, Susio and Alciato, and Vieville), or
Fortitude. In one case, it appears the Traitor would have trumped the Wheel of Fortune (the Colonna Cards, see Kaplan I, 134).
I take the majority sequence to be the original one - Time-Traitor-Death.
Taking the earliest painted Time cards (Charles VI, Catania, Visconti-Sforza) as indicative, and this order, he trumps the Wheel of Fortune because this is the best we can expect from Fortune - Old Age and Wealth (he is old, and he is dressed sumptuously, so not a beggar or mendicant preacher). But this situation is trumped by the (youthful) Traitor.
Why?
I think the most basic reading is then that given by Michael and Kwaw – no matter how virtuous or lucky (Julius Caesar comes to mind) betrayal can happen, and is the *worst* thing that can happen in life; if you can’t trust your closest friends, who or what can you trust? Conversely, to be known *as* a traitor, to be publically defamed and remembered for all time for this act, is the *worst* fate that can befall you in life. Like Michael says, drawing from Fanti, the image is a warning to beware of traitors, as well as a warning against being one.
In any case, it trumps all the other “human life” cards, coming just before Death, because it is the *worst* possible outcome of life. Death is inevitable, and comes to all in a myriad ways; but infamy before death is a kind of death-in-life; even if the card is interpreted as a shame painting and not an actual execution, it says that the person is as good as dead, since their fame (good report, reputation) has been destroyed.
Ross