The Fool - embarassing exposure?

[firemaiden]

I was quite surprised, looking at this marvelous little book, "The Art of Tarot" by Christine Olsen (1995) to finally see a full colour reproduction of the Ercole d'este Fool -- at first glance I thought it was the unusual Charles VI Fool, just going by the skimpy underpants, until I noticed the little people pulling them down! A very funny card! I guess it might be considered a little X-rated.

It seems that prior to the little doggie biting the Fools pants off, we had this? Does that mean "em-bare-ass-ing exposure of private parts" is the most important and most ancient aspect of this card?

(A larger version of the card from the Yale site can be seen here.)

 

[sharpchick]

Puts a whole new spin on the reason for the name on the card, huh? Thanks for sharing that - a little history every now and then is very illuminating.

 

[firemaiden]

Sure does! I think I should just point out that the Ercole d'Este deck (more cards of which can be seen in the digital collection of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library) dates from the end of the XVth century.

This card to me looks like it belongs next to the Charles VI Fool (same period) where the children are playing, but the guy still has his pants on - if it were a comic strip, it's almost as if the Ercole d'Este card shows what happens in the next pane.

 

[Aoife]

Goodness me!
These are incredibly rich........ but downright paedophillic!!

Fantastic finds firemaiden!

 

[DoctorArcanus]

Relevant Sola Busca cards

I think the 2 and 6 of Batons and the 5 of Cups from the Sola Busca deck could be relavant to this discussion. This deck also dates to the end of the XV Century (1491?).

Marco

 

[Huck]

I think the 2 and 6 of Batons and the 5 of Cups from the Sola Busca deck could be relavant to this discussion. This deck also dates to the end of the XV Century (1491?).

Marco

For the Sola Busca Tarot we do have the suspicion, that it was produced from persons of the homosexual scene of late 15th century (which was a large scene, especially in the 60's, 70's, 80's). The "platonic ideals", developing with Marsilio Ficino, had this as a natural companion.

The Accademia Romana and its scandal from 1468 had this as one point of accusation. Marsilio Ficino was attacked from this direction. The later Accademia, when it was reallowed under Sixtus IV, had members, which were very open with this theme.
The combination of poets and picture books and naturally also playing cards
was often.

We think, that the Mantegna Tarocchi developed from Rome ca. 1475. The Mantegna Tarocchi is a copperplate engraving. Rome was the place of the Accademia Romana (and of the church and of the pope and many men without women). The Sola Busca was also a copperplate engraving and its likely production place is Venice. For the Mantegna Tarocchi a combination of Venetian-Roman influences is likely.
Perhaps also for the Sola Busca. Venice and Rome had incommon, that both cities played a great role in the development of bookprinting (and naturally favoured with this development copperplate engraving).

Looking at the style of Sola Busca ... well, look, what you think, when you've a special phantasy about it. For instance:

http://www.trionfi.com/0/j/d/solabusca/index.html

some innocent swords look like a phallus.

 

[firemaiden]

Those Sola Busca cards do show exposure, LOL. But the Fool has something else, he is being "taunted" - and the exposure is one aspect of it.

Also, although the people around him are smaller in size, perhaps they are not supposed to be children but are smaller to depict relative importance.

Looking for an example of a card with little people around it, the only one I find is Saturn from the Mantegna Cards, Saturn!! eating children...

 

[Huck]

Those Sola Busca cards do show exposure, LOL. But the Fool has something else, he is being "taunted" - and the exposure is one aspect of it.

Also, although the people around him are smaller in size, perhaps they are not supposed to be children but are smaller to depict relative importance.

Looking for an example of a card with little people around it, the only one I find is Saturn from the Mantegna Cards, Saturn!! eating children...

The theme of the "Giant" might have been popular. Luigi Pulci, perhaps involved in the production of an early Minchiate game in the 60's writes just in this time his "Morgante" (ca. 1461 - 1470, though later published in a enlarged edition). Morgante is a Giant, although the whole stuff is about Roland or better Italian "Orlando". The theme is taken by Boiardo later (about 1476). Pulci is mainly active in Florence, but Boiardo is in Ferrara. And Boiardo made a Tarot himself (at least a poem), although it may have been produced after his death.

So the theme of a gigantic big fool is perhaps popular and existent. Boiardo had Polyphemus in his deck, the giant of the Odyssee. See:

http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/boiardo/

Much later Rabelais creates Gargantua, another giant.

In sexual matters the court society in Ferara was not very innocent. Carnival reached a new climax in the 60ies, after the big wars (1425 - 1454) were gone and society had enough money to finance some funny activities.

And the fool had something to do with carnival, very early. The whole Trionfi cards had something of it, and playing cards became carnival costumes also in Switzerland, likely also in Italy.

 

[DoctorArcanus]

Those Sola Busca cards do show exposure, LOL. But the Fool has something else, he is being "taunted" - and the exposure is one aspect of it.

Also, although the people around him are smaller in size, perhaps they are not supposed to be children but are smaller to depict relative importance.

Looking for an example of a card with little people around it, the only one I find is Saturn from the Mantegna Cards, Saturn!! eating children...

Firemaiden, I agree: the use of size to signify importance was common in art (and still is in visual communication).

For instance, in the above miniature, the king is larger than ordinary people.

In the attached detail from a XV century miniature (De Sphaera from Biblioteca Estense) the person on the left (and his donkey) are only a little larger than the child playing with the dog.

We can also see small figures in the Bagatto of the Ercole D'Este deck. In this case, as with the Fool, they could be children.

Thank you for the link to http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/ The images of the Ercole D'Este deck are very good indeed. Looking at them I noticed one more analogy between the Ercole D'Este and the Sola Busca decks: both represent Alexander the Great. In Sola Busca he features as the King of Swords (but his name is not present on the reproduction by Lo Scarabeo). In the Este Deck, he meets Diogenes of Sinope on the Sun card

Marco

 

[firemaiden]

Thank you, Marco, what a beautiful attachment that is. Is that a fool we see in the picture? I'd love to know more about that Mattia de Predis.

Yes, the d'Este sun card has Alexander and Diogenes! My favorite sun card. Such a clear reference classical texts -- and makes me wonder what are the references for the rest of the cards!