The Empresses Bag? (Noblet)

Elven

mac22 said:
I see both the open & closed bag.....

mac22

Yes, thats what I see - but open at one time and closed on the next look - did you mean that too mac22?
 

Gooneybird

The "umbrella" looks like the arm of the chair to me...

Maybe this was obvious to the rest of you, but at first I was looking at the empress as if she was sitting straight facing front (and going "a bag? how?"), then I realized she can also be seen as sitting to the side (see two black pieces and yellow sections to the left as legs/dress). The bag then makes a lot more sense since the black spot on her side obscuring the bag's bottom right corner would then be her hip. *sheepish*
 

mac22

Elven said:
Yes, thats what I see - but open at one time and closed on the next look - did you mean that too mac22?

Yep.... Such an optical illusion in art takes both thought, planning & skill. Which also lead me to not consider the sash theory as strongly..:)

Mac22
 

Moonbow

There are some great posts in this thread, very insightful and making me think. :D

I just cannot look at this card without seeing a bag on her lap now. I wonder how this compares with other Marseilles decks, I'm off to check.
 

prudence

Gooneybird said:
Maybe this was obvious to the rest of you, but at first I was looking at the empress as if she was sitting straight facing front (and going "a bag? how?"), then I realized she can also be seen as sitting to the side (see two black pieces and yellow sections to the left as legs/dress). The bag then makes a lot more sense since the black spot on her side obscuring the bag's bottom right corner would then be her hip. *sheepish*
Wow, it took me a minute to see it this way...I have always thought she was sitting straight forward, with her knees spread apart, but possibly with her feet together...very relaxed and comfortable. That white cloth seems to be sitting across both knees, and is dipping in the center because of the space between her knees...

But I can now see it as if she were more to one side of the throne. Weird.
 

kwaw

Legs apart...

Gooneybird said:
The "umbrella" looks like the arm of the chair to me...

Maybe this was obvious to the rest of you, but at first I was looking at the empress as if she was sitting straight facing front (and going "a bag? how?"), then I realized she can also be seen as sitting to the side (see two black pieces and yellow sections to the left as legs/dress).


Or together to the side?

EmpressSide.jpg


Kwaw
 

Elven

I still see her sitting forward legs astride.
The different colours of each leg (red one side, blue the other) is the same combination on the Emperor and le pendu and Justice to a degree ... and this makes me think that the colouring is deliberate ... and shows one side and the other.

Just to mention Il Bateleur and Le Fou have blue stockings (yet the Le Fou seems to have a red lining or top on his single pant leg).
 

kwaw

Bag open...bag closed

Legs open...legs closed

I can see both, like one those illusions such as that which looks like a ducks head or a rabbit depending on how you perceive it.

But open or closed, I cannot look at the image and 'not' see a bag.

Kwaw
 

mac22

kwaw said:
Bag open...bag closed

Legs open...legs closed

I can see both, like one those illusions such as that which looks like a ducks head or a rabbit depending on how you perceive it.

But open or closed, I cannot look at the image and 'not' see a bag.

Kwaw

I believe the card was designed as an optical illusion....:)

Mac22
 

Rosanne

Wow I just discovered Tarot is a Wedding Cake recipe book :D
Why not a bag for grain? It's for flour for the Four square cake/blood cake given to Gods and Emperors, that was earlier given to Gods at their altars.
Baleteur-utensils, Papesse the recipe book.he Emperor the Directions, The Fou has the spoon! The Hanged Man is the Taster.All the way through You can apply the Arcanum to cooking very clearly I think! })
Anyways I think it is a bag and I appreciate my attention been bought to it.
I have been wondering why the bag on the table of the Bateleur is there, when it should rightfully be on his waist. Here is a small snippet of an indication of the wealth of Grain in Medieval times from the records of the Church of St Dennis in France.

At the dedication of the church we had received besides from his son Louis the administration of the roads in
this village and all the revenues except from wine and grains(which went to the State not the church my italics), with royal
generosity, for the good of his soul, the protection of his person and of the realm. (100 muids of grain, by the measure of Étampes, which often was worth 100 pounds depending on the price of grain.) Around the Time of Tarot and the plague wheat was as usual a staple food and had to be administered by the state as the wheat industry was also devastated and cut by one third in Europe. I beleive this is still the case today- the Government gets the tax revenue from staple items.
Then again the grain sack could indicated the star cluster Pleiades that in RWS she wears as a crown... But it it is a purse and maybe this game is only for 100 crown punters. Like Poker schools today.
~Rosanne