Exploring the Cary Sheet

le pendu

The Magician

The Magician sits at his table, his feet sticking out the front. As noted already by Marco, the table has gothic attributes, unlike the common stick tables shown on most Magician cards.

He wears a very plain cap rather than the much more flamboyant one he ususally dons. This cap reminds me of the red caps so often shown in art from the 15th century.... as shown here: http://www.northernelectric.ca/medieval/hats/hats.htm#roundcap and here http://www.florentine-persona.com/red_caps.html

How widespread were these through Italy, is it a Florentine style?

Or is it something more like the cap shown here by Dutch Renaissance master Rogier van der Weyden, c.1435-1440

weyden8.JPG

What is that behind him? Is it part of the chair? That seems unlikely to me as it actually looks like he may be sitting on a stool. Is it some type of back pack?

His sleeve looks like it might be a hanging sleeve discussed earlier, with the large opening, but his hand actually coming out the cuff?

Does he wear a cape?

IS that really a baton in his hand? His hand position is kind of odd for it to be, why isn't he "holding" it? Is he balancing it on his fingertips? Could it be something else? A plate? This card often makes me thing of Prudence, gazing at her mirror, though that is very unlikely.

more to come..

robert
 

DoctorArcanus

Sleeves

le pendu said:
This brings me to one of the details that I find most interesting on the Cary Sheet. Hopefully someone with knowledge in the area will contribute some information about it. On the Cary Sheet the Emperor, Empress, and Temperance all seem to be wearing a type of clothing where the sleeve has a large gapping hole to allow the free movement of the arm. While the arm of the clothing dangles to their sides, they lift and move their arms freely through the hole. I assume this type of clothing actually existed.. does anyone know where and when???? Perhaps that might give us a clue to the time and place that the Cary Sheet originated?

I found this illustration on "A history of costume" by Carl Koehler (ISBN 0-486-21030-8). I have looked in a few books for German paintings / engravings of the late XV Century, and I have found two examples in men's dresses:

*Dirk Bouts and Hugo Van Der Goes 1470 ca
*The Hausbuchmeister (second half of the XV Century)

I have uploaded on tarotpedia an image confronting the three sources.

Similar sleeves can be found in Italian art, for instance the sleeves of the Emperor could be compatible with Italian style sleeves. But I don't remember anything similar to the sleeves of the Empress and Temperance.
Note that the "gapping hole" can also be seen in the Bateleur, but his arm goes throught the hole at the end of the sleeve. A similar case can be seen in the "yellow rider" in the Dirk Bouts painting.

Marco
 

firemaiden

Wow! okay yes, wow! those are exactly the sleeves, and from the FIRST HALF of the fifteenth century. Wow. I love these little clues, hiding innocently in plain sight!
 

DoctorArcanus

Italian Sleeves

firemaiden said:
Wow! okay yes, wow! those are exactly the sleeves, and from the FIRST HALF of the fifteenth century. Wow. I love these little clues, hiding innocently in plain sight!

Yes, I find these details interesting too :)
The Cary Sheet is really full of surprises.

I have searched some more in XV century Italian art, and I have found a few images that seem to match our mysterious sleeves.
From left to right, they represent:
1. A fresco by Piero della Francesa in Arezzo. It was painting after 1452.
2 and 3. Frescos in Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara. They were probably painted by Francesco Cossa in the 1470s.
4. A detail from one of the Histories of St. Ursula by Vittore Carpaccio. This Venetian painting is signed and dated 1495 by the author.

I think that the quality of the engravings and these works of art would point to a date in the second half of the XV century.

Marco
 

firemaiden

Well none of those venetian sleeves looks as much like the Cary sheet sleeves as the very first example you posted which supposedly from the first half of the 15th century....
 

jmd

Fantastic and significant additions!

Those finds with the slit sleeves does add credence to a better dating of the Sheet, and also, perhaps, its general area.

With regards to its provenance, I wonder, by returning to the depiction of the Devil, if we may also get further clarity.

I'll here simply point to le pendu's imagery of the Cary Sheet Devil and its later more or less cognate forms in the form of the Germanesque Krampus, that has its equivalent in more easternly and northerly directions:

carydevil.jpg


Of specific interest is that this representation has horns that seem to depict either ram or bull (I suspect former, though it is interesting to note that water buffaloes were used and known in places such as Bulgaria from early times).

So here we have the syncretisation of a number of important elements seemingly not found in other places: the 'forking' of the dead (or perhaps even live) human beings (though this is found on, for example, stone carvings of the 13th century Cathedral in Bourges); the 'harvest' back-pack; the peculiar flattened horns and tail; and the feminine breasts.

The fork is also peculiar in that it seems to be three-pronged (rather than two), and appears to have a horizontal cross-bar from which emerges the out prongs. I personally would have expected more the outer ones to be curved.

The back-pack bag also appears to be of the fruit-collection variety (apple-type?).
 

DoctorArcanus

Charioteer: a sitting man?

le pendu said:
The Chariot
At first glance, the Chariot looks like it might be a typical TdM Chariot. It has the two horses pulling in different directions, and the "plaque" in the center where many TdM artists often places their initials. If we did not have the tiny fraction of information above the top of the chariot itself, we might leave it at that. But we are lucky enough to be able to discern that where the "body" of the charioteer "should" be, what probably are feet appear instead. The posts of the canopy can be seen on the side. I suspect that this Chariot is probably displaying a figure standing on a platform rather than "within" the chariot itself. Both "standing" and "within" depictions occur quite early, but I can't think of any other with the square style chariot being used as a platform, or a standing figure with a canopy, (except perhaps in the Cary-Yale Visconti, but she is almost certainly sitting. http://highway55.library.yale.edu/PATREQIMG/size4/D0393/1011941.jpg ).

I have made a small visual experiment with the Chariot (and the Emperor).
From the size of the feet, I think that the figure on the chariot is sitting: the sitting figure of the Emperor just fits the size of the card. A standing figure would be too high.
Of course, I am far from certain about this :)

What I am more certain about, is that the charioteer is a man: wee can see both his feet. It seems to me that women's clothes of the XV century did not leave the feet visible, even in a sitting position. At least, I think it very unlikely that both feet were completely visibile, as we see in this card.

Marco
 

kwaw

jmd said:
With regards to its provenance, I wonder, by returning to the depiction of the Devil, if we may also get further clarity.

I'll here simply point to le pendu's imagery of the Cary Sheet Devil and its later more or less cognate forms in the form of the Germanesque Krampus, that has its equivalent in more easternly and northerly directions:

carydevil.jpg

It does resemble 'santa's helper' or 'companion of St. Nicholas' Krampus, generally associated with Germanic speaking regions of Austria, Bavaria, Switzerl and also common in Hungary and Croatia. Though often said to be derived from pre-christian pagan traditions, the procession of Krampus [and similar activities of alternative named devilish companions of St.Nicholas throughout Europe], associated with December 5th and December 6th, but may take place over the first two weeks of December, cannot be traced any earlier from what I understand, than the 16th century [earliest record c.1555].

Some postcard and other pictures:
http://www.krampus.com/krampus_collage.html

One aspect of Krampus was a sort of bogeyman who disciplined naughty children as part of the 'liturgy' of a gift-giving festival [in this region and period December 6th, St. Nicholas day] The idea of a bogeyman as a means of disciplining children in general, is often portrayed as carrying a sack on his back in which he carried them away, and is prettey world-wide:

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

Kwaw
 

kwaw

Sleeves

France c.1500:

Grandseigneureerivant.JPG



Kwaw
 

kwaw

sleeves

Quote:
Sleeves went from being close fitting around the year 1495 to the other extreme in the first quarter of 1500's when limits were set in Venice to curtail the escalating amount of cloth that was being used for sleeves. Sumptuary laws were also placed on use of cloth of gold, silver and silk. Even the use of gold or silver laces and embroidery was restricted. Venetian officials considered it was in 'good taste' for a women to wear a plain cloth dress having little or no embellishments with modest sleeves of brocade or silk of one color. Any lady caught wearing illegal sleeves was fined and had to forfeit her sleeves as was the person who made them fined. To skirt around these laws women would wear their 'plain' cloth dress made with slashes to show off a 'forbidden fabric' underneath.
End quote from:
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~rowen/renbk/sleeves.html

Kwaw