Pre-lot Text: The earliest extant tarot cards date from the mid-fifteenth century and center upon the Visconti and Sforza ducal families of Milan based upon identification of the heraldic devices appearing on many of the cards. No complete pack exists today and, except for two nearly complete decks and several multiple or single cards in private hands, all are housed in museums. The Visconti-Sforza Pierpont-Morgan Tarocchi deck contains 74 of 78 extant cards and is divided between the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York with 35 cards, the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo with 26 cards and Casa Colleoni with 13 cards. The Cary-Yale Visconti Tarocchi deck, housed in the Cary Collection of Playing Cards, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, comprises 67 of 86 cards. There are eight additional cards due to the inclusion of both male and female knights and valets.
The Pierpont-Morgan/Accademia Carrera/Casa Colleoni Tarocchi cards are attributed to Bonifacio Bembo, active 1444- c.1481, who spent much of his career in the service of the Sforza family. Francisco Sforza, one of the most important military figures of 15th-century Italy, married in 1441 the illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan. Following Filippo Maria's death and the failure of the Milanese to create a republic, Sforza declared himself Duke in 1450. The intermingling of the heraldic devices of the Visconti and Sforza on these cards has led to the suggestion that they were made for Francisco and his wife, Bianca Maria. A letter dated December 11, 1450 to Antonio Trecho, treasurer, records the duke's personal order for "carte di triumphe," adding a further instruction for his agent to obtain "the most beautiful that could be found." The artist's name is not specified, but Bembo's tarocchi cards may have been the duke's objective.
Lot description: Male Page of Staves, Tarocco card, Milan mid-15th century, attributed to Bonifacio Bembo. Burnished gold and tempera on gessoed card, backs painted reddish brown (upper corners chipped, a few losses of surface and gesso from gold background, pigment losses from upper part of figure, repaint to lower part of card). In design and style this figure is a duplicate of the Page of Staves in the Accademia Carrara: the soft contours and delicate modelling of flesh tones show it to be the work of the same artist. It varies from the Bergamo card, and others of that set in one detail of the technique. In the present card gold-leaf was laid over the entire area above the landscape and the figure was painted on top of that. This may have resulted in a subtle luminosity that would have accorded well with the preferred blonde tones in works attributed to Bembo. Unfortunately it has also resulted in the pigment adhering less securely than if it had been painted directly on to the gesso ground. It may be that it was in recognition of this that Bembo abandoned this innovation and completed the Bergamo and Morgan Library cards by conventionally applying paint directly onto gesso. 6 11/16 in. (17.1 cm) high, 3 7/16 in. (8.8 cm) wide.
