Visconti Strength card, what are they looking at?

I'm going through my Visconti pack lately, reflecting on the images & something struck me about the strength card. Traditional imagery has a female in control of a roaring lion, seeming to sooth the savage beast. While not necessarily in conflict they are seemingly not in agreement.

The Visconti shows a young man with a club & a lion both looking as if they are on the attack. But not attacking each other, they're both facing the same direction (right) & their eyes are looking at the same point, outside the card. They seem to be in agreement.

I've compared all the Major & Court cards to the Strength card but don't find an obvious adversary. I wonder what the meaning of this depiction means.

I can't put up images here but I hope this link will work

What's the protagonist to the Visconti Strength card? https://tarotmeditations.wordpress.com/decks/visconti-sforza/#jp-carousel-1415

Inconnu said:

I'm going through my Visconti pack lately, reflecting on the images & something struck me about the strength card. Traditional imagery has a female in control of a roaring lion, seeming to sooth the savage beast. While not necessarily in conflict they are seemingly not in agreement.

The Visconti shows a young man with a club & a lion both looking as if they are on the attack. But not attacking each other, they're both facing the same direction (right) & their eyes are looking at the same point, outside the card. They seem to be in agreement.

I've compared all the Major & Court cards to the Strength card but don't find an obvious adversary. I wonder what the meaning of this depiction means.

I can't put up images here but I hope this link will work

What's the protagonist to the Visconti Strength card? https://tarotmeditations.wordpress.com/decks/visconti-sforza/#jp-carousel-1415

Click to expand...

It's Hercules with the lion. Another traditional image is a woman with a pillar, as in the Schifanoia. These are in fact the "traditional" perhaps even "original" historical images. Various chicks with lions come later in the tarots' development. Best wishes.

Yes, thanks. Hadn't thought of Hercules. I'll be doing some reading on that.

As the Visconti pre-dates "traditional" Tarot imagery this figures.

But, chicks with lions...that's another thread.

Best

Hercules used a club. Samson did it with his bare hands, like the Tarot chicks. Hercules is also depicted in the 1JJ Swiss, but he has dropped his club.

Sovereignty, war and goods production are three main functions of the proto-Indo-European society. Among these three functions, the warrior class can also be divided into two parts. There are two kinds of contrasting warriors: the brutal warriors who often use clubs or their own hands, and the wise warriors who use swords as their weapons. Heracles (Roman Hercules) falls into the first category, while Achilles is an example of a wise warrior. Heracles is also depicted as a cross-dressing warrior and triple-sinning warrior in art and literature.

I believe the man is Francesco Sforza and the lion Venice. It's hard to say what they're looking at but I think there's a good possibility it's Milan, or at leat elements within Milan standing in Francesco's way.

The following background is in Kapaln's Encyclopedia Vol.2, but I'll summarize. Francesco was married to Bianca Maria Visconti and when her father, Filippo Visconti died, Milan should have passed to Francesco by inheritance, but Milan wouldn't surrender the duchy without a fight. This is where Venice comes in, they made a treaty with Sforza and helped him defeat Milan. Francesco was the first Sforza to hold the tile "Duke of Milan." Winged lions (a symbol for St. Mark) are common throughout Venice and St. Mark's Cathedral is also there.

From Kaplan's booklet, in the sectioned "The Visconti and Sforza Families and Heraldic Devices":

"His (Francesco's) father, Muzio Attendolo, a powerful condottiere in Italy, earned the nickname Sfrorza, force, when he assisted Duke Giangaleazzo Visconti in defeating the della Scala family in 1387. Francesco was the first to bear Sforza officially as a family name."

I don't think it's coincidental that Franceso Sforza is depicted on the "Force" card. Some scholars believe the Lovers depicts the wedding of Franceso and Bianca Maria, and that the Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo tarot was commissioned by Francesco.

Abrac said:

I believe the man is Francesco Sforza and the lion Venice. It's hard to say what they're looking at but I think there's a good possibility it's Milan, or at leat elements within Milan standing in Francesco's way.

The following background is in Kapaln's Encyclopedia Vol.2, but I'll summarize. Francesco was married to Bianca Maria Visconti and when her father, Filippo Visconti died, Milan should have passed to Francesco by inheritance, but Milan wouldn't surrender the duchy without a fight. This is where Venice comes in, they made a treaty with Sforza and helped him defeat Milan. Francesco was the first Sforza to hold the tile "Duke of Milan." Winged lions (a symbol for St. Mark) are common throughout Venice and St. Mark's Cathedral is also there.

From Kaplan's booklet, in the sectioned "The Visconti and Sforza Families and Heraldic Devices":

"His (Francesco's) father, Muzio Attendolo, a powerful condottiere in Italy, earned the nickname Sfrorza, force, when he assisted Duke Giangaleazzo Visconti in defeating the della Scala family in 1387. Francesco was the first to bear Sforza officially as a family name."

I don't think it's coincidental that Franceso Sforza is depicted on the "Force" card. Some scholars believe the Lovers depicts the wedding of Franceso and Bianca Maria, and that the Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo tarot was commissioned by Francesco.

Click to expand...

This is very informative. I really hadn't considered possibility of actual people being represented in the imagery.

I'll be doing some more reading on this line.

Thank you!

I think looking for family members and associates in the Visconti-Sforza cards is a very fruitful line of inquiry. For instance: Sister Manfreda as the Papesse; F. Sforza's father Muzio Attendolo as the Hanged Man; perhaps Il Bagatto is the family banker.

As for the Strength card, it's name almost requires us to see it as Francesco, or some other male Sforza. It seems like the man and lion are looking in the same direction. But the lion is rendered rather awkwardly, so that isn't necessarily so. Perhaps this card really shows Francesco Sforza whacking the Venetian Lion. (Association with the Hercules legend wouldn't be unwelcome). Sforza fought with the Visconti against Venice on more than one occasion. Milan's defeat of Venice in 1432 must have been one of the peaks of Sforza's military career and turned his fortunes, smoothing the way for his engagement with Bianca Visconti.

But, between 1437 and 1440, Francesco allied himself with the League of Florence, which included Venice, against Milan. In 1440 he became the Venetian military captain and defeated Milan in several skirmishes. By 1440 everyone was exhausted and Sforza was selected to negotiate a truce between Venice, Milan and Florence. The peace treaty included a provision that Francesco and Bianca could marry immediately.

Perhaps this card is a sentimental reminder that his alliance with Venice ultimately led to his marriage.

It always amazes me how the condottiere could switch sides multiple times and no one seemed to mind or hold a grudge. Imagine if Benedict Arnold had asked George Washington to take him back into the continental army! GW took Arnold's defection very personally, while in Sforza's time, political and military allegiance seemed to be a game where everyone understood that money talked louder than personal loyalty.

The information on Sforza came from Kaplan's Encyclopedia vol. II pages 91-93.

Sherryl that's so true. It's hard to keep track; one day they're fighting for one side and the next day another then back again.

I said it's possible that the lion symbolizes Venice, but I'm not 100% convinced. On the King of Swords, there's a lion with a halo on the King's shield, a clear symbol of St. Mark. But the lion on Force has neither a halo nor wings, so that leaves one to wonder. I'm sure the man is Francesco, but the lion still has a question mark for me. It might just be suggestive, as in "Francesco has the strength of a lion," or some such thing.

Ross G. Cadwell pointed out in another thread, there's a very similar image from the Astrolabum Planum that could have provided inspiration for the Force card. It's the 26th degree of Libra.

http://www.tarot.org.il/Degrees/Libra.html

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=124225

Sforza identified themselves with Hercules (ecole) - on virtue, hercules and the ideal city of Sforzinda see for example:

http://etudesanciennes.revues.org/334

Sforza means 'strength' 'fortidude' - the lion and hercules are emblems of such - his identification with them represents his 'manly virtue' and what he was facing was the immediate trials and tribulations and tasks (as of Hercules) towards the establishment of the ultimate goal - the ideal city (the world, new jerusalem, platonic republic, the virtuous city - 'Sforzinda'). It is artistic/cultural 'propoganda'.