(In)Significance of Marseille colours?

Even with altering colours over time (for example, brass, which looks a little similar to gold, becoming green due to the oxidation of its copper base), pigments can usually be ascertained by careful magnification and, in only some rare cases, chemical analysis. The hue may not be rightly determined, but then, neither would it have been consistently applied at the time.

Frankly, and though I entirely agree that their was a 'colour meaning' at the time, this I do not think would have been taken in isolation of its setting: sure royal blue and Madonna blue had their specific connection - and in some cases, may have had the equivalent of 'copyright usage'. On the whole, however, the colour used would have been meaningful only if assigned to an image having its complement in iconographic reference. For example, a deep blue, on a Madonna-like figure, may be quite different than if applied to mosaïc tiling (though the Madonna blue is one of the more fixed of all colours in terms of its association).

If the image is going to be coloured, I would suggest that its determining factor would be how the colour brings out the intended image. For this, perhaps three principal factors may well be:I personally do not think, then, that specific colours were generally applied because of meaning. Nonetheless, colour-sense would have affected its various application.

I agree with Le Pendu in terms of what could have been the rationale to define a color scheme for these cards.

We not only would need to define if they had a conscious use of color, but how this conscious use of color was applied.

I don’t think this will be of interest here, but the only thing I can add from my personal experience working with the Noblet, and with several different people, is that the colors on the hand-stenciled version (specially the yellow), at daylight, are more effective to induce trance-like states than the colors of the mass printed version. It has to do both with the higher brightness, and the depth of the gouache applied manually, against the flat feeling of the industrial quadrichromy (which has its own distinctive beauty). So, in regard of the colors, I find the hand-stenciled version more useful to work with.

Best,

EE

EnriqueEnriquez said:

I agree with Le Pendu in terms of what could have been the rationale to define a color scheme for these cards.

We not only would need to define if they had a conscious use of color, but how this conscious use of color was applied.

I don’t think this will be of interest here, but the only thing I can add from my personal experience working with the Noblet, and with several different people, is that the colors on the hand-stenciled version (specially the yellow), at daylight, are more effective to induce trance-like states than the colors of the mass printed version. It has to do both with the higher brightness, and the depth of the gouache applied manually, against the flat feeling of the industrial quadrichromy (which has its own distinctive beauty). So, in regard of the colors, I find the hand-stenciled version more useful to work with.

Best,

EE

Click to expand...

I think I know exactly what you mean Enrique. I often say that the colors "Vibrate". There is something about holding the handmade deck in your hand with those hand-stenciled colors.. they are simply amazing, and I've never seen anything like it in a printed deck.

Marteau Grimaud

teomat,

You mentioned the colours used in the Marteau Grimaud. Yes, the colours used by Marteau are different from the colours used in the 18th century Conver TdM and in the 19th century limited-colour palette Camoin version of the Conver TdM. I have never read any explanation as to why Marteau changed the colours. If he was going to use a limited-colour palette because of technological considerations or production ease, I don't see why he didn't use the Camoin limited-colour palette. In any event, it would seem that Marteau did see the colours as important. In _Le Tarot de Marseille_, his companion book to his deck, his interpretation of the cards includes his interpretation based on the meanings he assigns to the various colours.

colors in Boiardo tarot

The Tarot game described by Matteo Maria Boiardo in the late XV Century is known from a poem by the same Boiardo, a few surviving unpainted cards, and a comment text written by Pier Antonio Viti probably at the beginning of the XVI Century.

Boiardo writes:


that we translated:


But the last verse literally means:
"And their meaning gives them their color."

This is not necessarily meaningful. It is likely that color was a synonym of suit.

But from Viti's comment I had the impression of a strong meaningfulness of colors in this deck.

From Viti comment:
"El campo de le qual carte è colore morello nel gioco de Amore, che significa Amore, cioè colore violaceo; e nel gioco de la Speranza el verde, che significa speranza; e cusì ne li altri doi giochi."

The field of the cards of the suit of Love is brown, i.e. violet, that means Love. In the suit of Hope the field is green, meaning hope; and so on in the other suites.

In the comment by Viti we find detailed indications of how the cards should be painted, with particular attention to the colors of the dresses. This makes me think of the color indications we find in my beloved Iconologia by Cesare Ripa.

Marco

Some practicalities might be considered.
Instant recognition of the maker of the card through the colour distribution.
For every colour used there is one more pass through the stencil process.
The use of colour to make the most profit from the least amount of process.
Designs in woodblocking was so that you could place the stencil most accurately- so it is sectional- so you could define sections by colour, in the most pleasing way.
So apart from the obvious symbolic use- blue is feminine, red is masculine, green is nature, yellow is light and accent (Like crowns) it was about economy and economic contrast more than symbolic, in colouring cards. Look back through the cards and see how much purple was used- one of the most symbolic of all colours. To get purple you had to mix two of your base colours - a further process for not much result for cards.
~Rosanne