Noblet - Atouts: Le Bateleur

The number three and LL Bateleur (Noblet)

Virtually as soon as I received the Noblet Majors I noticed the amount of 'threes' in the Bateleur card.

Have a look for yourself, it's a kind of 'spot the threes' game.

I only know of two people with three fingers and an thumb, one being my daughter's best friend and the other being Mickey Mouse. so I thought I would do some Googling and came up with all manner of things which varied from the number three representing the Holy Trinity (of course), to childbirth to sexual symbols and the penis. Baring in mind the review and interview about the Flornoy's Noblet deck, which I read a few days ago, I found this quite interesting.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=1167420#post1167420

(post # 217 by le pendu)

So was Noblet indeed 'giving the fingers' to the establishment with his portrayal of Le Bateleur?

Thanks for linking to the review/interview, Moonbow*. That is one of the best, most informative reviews I have ever read.

So, Noblet may have been saying (regarding the taxing and government intrusion) "F*** you", with his Bateleur? This deck may be very old, but it is comforting to know that not a lot has changed for us people living under government rules etc....(well, maybe comforting is not exactly the right word here)

Is that meant to be his (the bateleur's) own penis in his hand? In a way saying, "You hand me my dick, and leave me impotent" as a card maker...?

All of this does seem to make the Bateleur seem much more angry and pointed than I had previously seen him. The look in his eyes is a bit severe, like he is giving the "stink-eye" to someone in the "past".

I also noted all of the 3's in this image, and wondered about the connection. edited to add; I forgot to mention the 3 fingers and thumb....another place to view such beings is on a show you may have heard of called "The Simpsons". (my son has informed me that an American animation detail is this style hand, and that it would not be depicted this way in say a Japanese animated show/image.)

I suspect had it been me that had worked on carefully restoring this deck to its original woodcut quality, I would likely have caused a lot of criticism by also 'restoring' the 'missing' fingers and continuation of the 'wand'.

Personally, I do not think it was intended as a fingers-up-yours-type depiction, but rather that the woodcut became damaged with part of that section of the image broken, at the time this particular imprint was made. If anything, it points that this specific deck is a 'late' imprint made with this woodcut.

Comparing the original and Flornoy's restoration, one can especially see how much care Jean-Claude took with the design, and how so fortunate we are to have this deck re-published in its current form.

The images, by the way, also also available for viewing on tarot-history.com (the bateleur here).

jmd said:

I would likely have caused a lot of criticism by also 'restoring' the 'missing' fingers and continuation of the 'wand'.

Personally, I do not think it was intended as a fingers-up-yours-type depiction,

Click to expand...

I don't think it was meant as a 'fingers-up-yours-type depiction' either, but I dó think the 'finger' on his left hand has been intentionally made a phallus. I guess I must come across on this forum as a very sexually obsessed woman by now, talking about nipples, phalluses and sexual energy all the time, but as I believe that sexual energy is THE creative force that connects the divine world with the physical world, the sexual symbolism in the Noblet deck is very obvious to me.

The Noblet deck just makes some symbols explicit that are more hidden in the other decks. The wand that is depicted on most other decks stands for the same phallus, symbolising the male creative force fertilising the receptive female earth (hence the plant between his legs).

Not to put too fine a point on it--but what would be the odds that such a magician, if castrated, was also circumcised, as his finger-penis seems to be? There's something about all this that just doesn't sit right with me. A bit of a dirty joke symbolically veiled is one thing (if that is a plant-vagina, it's surely symbolically veiled), but this seems beyond that and I just keep doubting it....am I the only one?

No Debra- you are not the only one. I don't like this deck, and without too finer point I think this Bateleur sucks. It would make more sense if it was sticking in his ear ~Rosanne

Well who can say what exactly is being held in the Bateleur's left hand and why it's drawn and coloured the way it is, that's just the thing, no one knows for sure, and we can only surmise but to me it's most likely part of his baton, although his little finger looks more like a thumb, which is curious. This all adds to the quirkiness of this interesting and important deck.

I love the Noblet, I think it's refreshing to see a Marseille which is different to most and is also probably one of the oldest that we have access to. To actually have a 78 card version to study is wonderful, and I agree that the restoration by the Flornoys is superb craftsmenship. I'm happy to see the reproduction not tampered with, and brought to us exactly as was seen in last remaining deck, although is it kind of distracting.

I also like the way that this Bateleur is standing up straight and not leaning back as in some decks, the Conver being one.

I also thought the "phallus/wand" looked circumcised.

This quirk (among many others) adds to my great fondness for this deck. I mean, sure it was a bit of a shock at first, then after that wore off, it left me wondering, "What on earth could that possibly *mean*?" It has become a mystery to me that I would love to solve, or at least have solved for me. I cannot imagine that it wasn't meant to be seen as a phallus. (especially when we consider Le Fou's exposed parts, heck maybe Le Bateleur is the owner of that "civet" who was last seen taking a swipe at Le Fou's phallus)

You are quite right Moonbow about this reproduction! The skill is apparent. I do think what we see in the old has been tampered with- most apparent in this Card. I would be more likely to have believed it was a wand with a diamond or inset in the end. I am glad it is liked by others as I support anything 'Tarot' especially historic explorations. I did not mean to sound abrupt.
Prudence- That made me laugh- Somewhere between the Fov and the Bateleur, circumsicion appears to have happened. Maybe that is the point. ~Rosanne

I agree with JMD on this one (Surprise!), it looks to me like the woodcut broke off. Surely we can read anything we want into it if we'd like to, but I doubt that it was intended to look this way.

I guess this also is a case where I think we might expect a bit much of the cardmakers. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

It is interesting to compare this image to the Heri deck from Kaplan II, the closest deck I know of to the Noblet. (page 318)