Evolution of the Death card

Sidhe-Ra

A question for the history buffs- when did Death first appear in black robes?

Thanks :)
 

DoctorArcanus

Hello SR,
I don't when Death first appeared in black robes on a tarot card. An interesting question.

As a tarot related ancient allegory, this is from "The Triumph of Death" by Petrarch:

The troop was moving onward joyously,
When I beheld a banner dark and sad,
And a woman shrouded in a dress of black,
With fury such as had perchance been seen
When giants raged in the Phlegraean vale,

così venia quella brigata allegra,
quando vidi un'insegna oscura e trista:
et una donna involta in veste negra,
con un furor qual io non so se mai
al tempo de' giganti fusse a Flegra,


Here you can find some earlier references to black death.
 

kwaw

Which decks are you thinking of in which death appears in black robes?
 

Sidhe-Ra

Well, that's what I'm asking! The earliest decks that I know of Death is in his bare bony bodkin. Yet the familiar image is of Death robed, (or in armour ala RWS). So I'm wondering when he first appeared in robes, and if it has any significance re the cultural attitude to Death at the time.

It's for an essay I'm writing for an anthology. History is not my strong point.

Thank you Doctor Arcanus for the Petrarch Quote!

Em xx
 

kwaw

Death (thanatos) appears as Black Robed in Euripides Alcestis.* Euripides was revived in the late 15th century. Early 16th century translations of Alcestic became the model for numerous plays and operas by various authors, poets and composers across Europe from the 16th century right up to the 20th century - whether this has any relevance to the widespread popularisation of the image of death as black-robed I don't know . . .

So how do you end up writing an essay for an anthology on something you know nothing about in an area that isn't your strong point? I know plenty of nothin' if they're looking to take anyone else on ;P

kwaw

*Heracles: . . . I shall watch for Death, the black-robed Lord of the Dead, and I know I shall find him near the tomb, drinking the blood of the sacrifices.
 

Sidhe-Ra

So how do you end up writing an essay for an anthology on something you know nothing about in an area that isn't your strong point? I know plenty of nothin' if they're looking to take anyone else on ;P

Well, at risk of sounding arrogant, by being a world-renowned Tarot creator,teacher, esoteric artist and author. I am after a very specific bit of information for one point I am making in an essay for a publishers I have already written for a number of times. I'm afraid submissions are closed, since I am already over a week late with this!

Thank you for the quotes. If anyone has info about the first appearance in Tarot of Death as the stereotypical Grim Reaper in the black robe, that would be lovely. If not, no worries.

Blessings,

Em x
 

kwaw

Thank you for the quotes. If anyone has info about the first appearance in Tarot of Death as the stereotypical Grim Reaper in the black robe, that would be lovely. If not, no worries.

One for the Encylopedia of Tarot perhaps, my copies are back in England - I suspect fairly recent, no earlier than the 20th century. . .? (... and possibly post-hammer house of horror).

Re: cultural influence I would think rather cultural market, c. Iron Maiden crowd or Goths?

(Off hand I think some Etteilla death cards show the reaper clothed, but not in a black robe I don't think - more of a red rag or long scarve in one version, and a brownish hoodless habit in another version . . . )
 

Lillie

Hi Em.
I was going to PM this to you, but your box is full.

I got interested in your question about death.

It seems that death was first personified as the grim reaper that we know today after a huge famine in the early 1300s and the Black Death 1348-50 ish. (They didn't call it that then, they called it the great plague and stuff like that.) http://www.vlib.us/medieval/lectures/black_death.html

I can't say for sure that death was never personified before that, he probably was, but after the plague these depictions became common.
Examples of these are the dance of death (danse macabre), the earliest of which is known from the 1420s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre
Then it carries on with stuff like the Michael Wolnegut picture that is at the top of that page, some of the skeletons there are sort of cloaked, but the colour of the cloak isn't defined.
And Hans Holbein who did a whole death alphabet. Cute. http://www.dodedans.com/Eholbein.htm

A lot of these images show the skeleton of death wound in a white cloth, which I suppose is the winding sheet of the dead.
Like this one from 1376.
http://www.heritage-images.com/Preview/PreviewPage.aspx?id=2330429&pricing=true&licenseType=RM

The earliest depiction I can find of death in a specifically black robe is this, http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:818...l~23~23,ODLodl~1~1,ODLodl~24~24&mi=42&trs=307 (sorry about the big link)
It's by Guillaume de Deguileville, from his book Le Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine (the pilgrimage of the human life).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_de_Deguileville

I can't date this. Deguileville wrote his book in the 1330s, and another edition was made in the 1350s. So that would straddle the black death.
However, this illustration comes from the Bodliean library, and is part of the Douce collection, which was given to the library in the will of Francis Douce
http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/mss/douce.htm
The catalogue of the collection dates this manuscript (douce 300) to the early 15th century http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/sumcat/vol-iv/SCIV585.jpg
So, if that's correct then it would be a later edition made after the black death.

The first tarot card I can find with a robed death is the Gringonneur (15th C) which has death robed and on a horse, but the robes aren't black.

The Rosenwald sheet (16th C) has death on a horse with a robe and scythe, but it's just a line drawing. So the robe looks white.

Tarot de Paris (17th C) has something draped on him. Not sure what.
Same with the Vandeborre.

Grand Etteilla, from 1788 has a standing robed death, but the picture I can find shows the robe as brown. http://tarotconnection.net/etteilla/page/6/

In the encyclopedia of tarot (1) the Tellurian tarot (1971) shows a robed death, but no scythe.

Other tarots from that time period show variations of this image. Morgan Greer probably the best known. Nice card.

So, the cloak is one of death's things, and it comes and goes. It's optional. It seems to have developed from the idea of a winding sheet, and then (possibly as winding sheets went out of use) morphed into a sort of monks robe, maybe influenced by gothic literature around 1800, that had loads of spooky monk stuff going on.
Part of this could also be artistic considerations. A cloak covers a load of complicated bones.

There is a great Grim reaper scene from Metropolis. But again the robes aren't black.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cag6CSo-g9c&feature=related

The reason that the black robed image is so common now is probably down to a film, The Seventh Seal, (1957) which shows death as robed and hooded, and playing chess (borrowed from medieval imagery), where death also played chess.

This has been parodied so many times (Bill, Ted and Twister) that it's pretty much how we see death now.

My favourite Death is Neil Gaiman's, from Sandman. But she's not very typical.

Hope this is of some use to you.

Even if it's not, I had a good time looking it all up.
 

kwaw


Well done Marco !

Italian edition (2000 limited edition) of 1983, reprint of the "Jeu de la Princess Tarot" which I think was first published as illustrations in a book of fate in 1843 and made into a set cards in the latter half of the 19th century and marketed by games manufacturer and editor Charles Wattilliaux in the 1870s. According to tarotpedia the 1983 Dusserre edition is a photo-reproduction of an 1876 edition. Mark Filipas reviews the 1983 reproduction Cartomanzia Italiana Edition by Soleone here:

http://pasteboardmasquerade.com/Reviews/cartoma.html

The Dussere edition:
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Jeu_de_la_Princesse_Tarot_(Dusserre_edition)