hi cc,
creakingcricket said:
Thanks, Huck, for the information about Sigismondo. I see some resemblance.
Where I can see enough of the platform to judge its shape, it appears to be a uniform trapezoid.
The persons on the Lovers card may be Francesco Sforza and Bianca, but Francesco was 24 years older and a powerfully built man, rather than the small male shown on the card.
Likely the difference in height of the two persons comes not from nature, but from the lower social position, which Sforza had in this marriage. It was "correct for the local politic" ... especially at the begin of the reign of Sforza (short after 1450). Sforza was a wise man and not proud, if it was necessary. So he would have been content, if Galeazzo Maria would have been accepted as "correct heir" by the current emperor ... but the emperor didn't accept this till his death. His son Maximilian then married a Milanese girl very quickly.
As Rosanne stated correctly, there are also kings and queens with platform, whereby the platform is raised at the chariot.
Which woud make together 13 platforms, one raised and moving. Which reminds me on a sun, which visits her 12 stations in the zodiac.
The king of coins - front - has an unusual platform, but it's trapezoid in its basic (with towers)
The king of batons - front - has a six sided shape
The king of cups - left side picture, trapezoid with great doubts
The king of swords - front, clear trapezoid
Queen - coins - right side - not recognizable
Queen - batons - front - trapezoid
Queen - cups - front - six sided shape
Queen - swords - left side - not recognizable
Popesse - front - trapezoid
Empress - front - not recognizable
Emperor - left side - trapezoid or six-sided
Pope - front trapezoid
I was thinking of the great plague of 1348, which might have approached Milan from Florence. Apollo is apparently the god of health through toxins, his bow being covered with snakeskin, and health or death being a matter of dosage. Thus the 'Medici' suggestion. Florence was frequently at war with Milan during the reign of Filippo Maria Visconti.
Milan seems to have been one of very few regions, which weren't attacked by the plague 1348.
Perhaps this explains the quick progress of Milanese influence since ca 1350. Similar progress we see in Bohemia in this time, the personal kingdom of the Emperor.
The Fool has goiter, very common above the Po river, so there may be a Visconti representative.
Interesting observation, never heard of this (or - I remember dark something, but it is not in Kaplan's description). Do you have a medical background as a physician?
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This is, what Martiano da Tortona wrote in Milan probably ca. 1423-25 to Apollo and an idea of the plague is not given.
http://trionfi.com/0/b/11
APOLLO
Apollo Phoebus, shinging glory of the stars, surrounded by the Pierides in Helicon, you adorn the holy mount Parnassus. Approach, fifth in the number of the gods! This one, the most desirous of glory, combines arms with wisdom and letters. There would seem to be nothing lacking to him regarding these two most excellent kinds of praise: namely he did away with the Python, a serpent of enormous size and among the most dangerous in the lands; and he assisted Jupiter with amazing strength in the war with the Giants: thus we discover Apollo. The discoverer of the art of healing, he distinguished the power of herbs with sound discernment; and humankind having thereby been healed, he enjoyed their friendship. And how much thanks is owed to his divinity when healthy; it is because of him we undertake treatments of the body. Apollo is the god of divination and wisdom, by whose auspices the augurs fortell the future. And likewise he was the inventor of songs, and the composer for the voice. Especially of him, poems are written, whose favour it was accustomed to invoke by the same. And it is not everyone, who may be confident to be able to pursue the poetic honour, the laurel and the myrtle, unless Apollo breathe their songs into the breast; let him eagerly assent to the spring of Castalia; his name being counted among the highest praises of these divine prophets, since in the presence of poets and victorious leaders, his offerings of the laurel spring up; to whom uninterrupted honours are at least to be paid, for the merits of so many things. To him was built in the first place, in the island of Delphi in the Aegean sea, a marvelous temple, from which the responses of secrets used to be given by his oracle, very often still wrapped in much obscurity. His military garments are yet retained. And he was made the head of the nine Muses, and on Mount Parnassus the Cirrhan ridge was dedicated to contemplation, from where he himself drew out the notice of the future. Head locks decorated with laurel, by both Caesarian and poetic law; and he bears a bow with arrows, since he obtained excellence by his arts.