Looking at the card again:
Moongold said:
Back to the picture, FM, In the broad light of day if you have a clear look at the Knight's face it is PINK and I think his hands are slightly pink. Yet his body is encased in elegant concrete. Now that should make the metaphorical wheels spin, surely?
Moongold
Hmmm, What the bit of pink in the Universal RW card shows, Moongold, is that Mary Hanson Roberts was as uncomfortable with the effigy as I, because the original coloring, as far as I can see from the enlarged card on the "learn tarot" site, has no pink, zip, nada, none. Just deathly yellow. The Universal Waite card also differentiates the knight from his support (white) and gives him a bit of shadow which makes it look like his lying on the coffin, not part of it...
edited to say: Scratch that! They both have the shadow!
Some things in the original drawing do point to life however, with or without color, if you look at it blown up very large -- the rendering is so carefully detailed. We see nostrils, creases and folds in the sleeves, a pattern of squares in the pillow, and I think I see an open collar. His hands are not pressed together, but held ever so slightly apart and at an angle from eachother. A good stone sculture could do all of this I suppose, but it does look very life-like...
There is a "z" on his sleeve. ("zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"?)
There is further mystery that perhaps someone can clarify for me: the decoration to the left of the swords ends in the tiny head of a lion...or is it a ram??? What does that mean?
edited to say: I think it is actually a ram's head.