5 of Cups - A Line (was) Drawn

[Fulgour]

Another thread on The 5 of Cups, asked:

"What do you see?"

Some things I have noticed, new and old:

He has an oddly looking foot... muddy or otherwise lumpish,
and there is a "significant" looking line through the drawing.

Here's an attachment that dramatizes both aspects clearly:

 

[Fulgour]

With the attachment for viewing now in place (above),
I wanted ask for insights and opinions on this feature.

Also, look where Pamela Colman Smith placed her PCS.

 

[firecatpickles]

I always enjoy your insights --and always with attached artwork, blown up...

I am thinking perhaps Coleman Smith wanted to denote that the figure stands in a road?

 

[Teheuti]

there is a "significant" looking line through the drawing.

A similar "significant" line is also found on the following cards:
8, 10, Page of Cups

And a similar, but double, line on the:
4, 9, 10 of Wands
2 of Cups
2, 5, 7 of Swords
2, 4, 6, 8 of Pentacles

Perhaps it is the bottom of the scenic backcloth on a theatrical set - stemming from her involvement in set design. It seems to clearly demarc a foreground and background. It may also have been a convention used in book illustration of the time but I would have to check lots of other works, especially by her art instructors, to see if this is so.

Mary

 

[firecatpickles]

From your pointing that out, I am seeing it a different way. The "set design" motif seems almost ubiquitous...

 

[Fulgour]

Above & Below

Thanks! And, the overturned Cups lay so they pour out
below the line ~ while the upright Cups are open above it.

Pam's signature is above the line too, though there's a big
space below it to sign in the area she usually chose for it.

 

[lark]

Do you think maybe the card was colored wrong?
That below the line should have been a different color, but it was over looked at the printer?
It just feels like below the line should have been white.

 

[Fulgour]

Hi lark! What Mary said about The 8 of Cups
(and other cards) is spot on... but differently.

Something about "this" card is more compelling,
at least to me... perhaps because of the PCS.

And then there is that foot. That is intentional.

*

Here's another scan showing the card as divided
in two pieces ~ little above, very much below:

 

[lark]

Well I notice that...the foot reminds me of the foot on the crippled man in the 5 of Pentacles.
And there is something strange about the cloak it seems suspended not really set on him as if he could be facing right or left.

LOL! I just thought of something maybe his foot is swollen because he kicked those three cups over.

 

[Fulgour]

King James Bible

Joshua 9:13

And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new;
and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes
are become old by reason of the very long journey.

*

Mark 2:22

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles:
else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled,
and the bottles will be marred:
but new wine must be put into new bottles.