Hand-Painted Tarocchi Cards

XV century hand-painted and gilded Tarocchi cards, so-called ‘Charles VI tarot’ or sometimes the Grigonneur deck.

Note: this set has been named "Tarots of Charles VI" or Grigonneur cards owing to a misinterpretation of an account book entry in 1392 describing a payment of 56 sols of Paris to the artist Jacquemin Gringonneur for “three packs of cards gilded, coloured, and ornamented with various designs, for the amusement of our lord the king,” intended for Charles VI (but which have not survived). This myth was perpetuated, and further elaborated, for some time, even by respected scholars.

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These intelligently designed cards are reputed to have belonged to a royal tutor and their content appears to justify that legend. Each of the images is designed as a multi-faceted mnemonic figure, in which one of the major astronomical figures is represented according to both western and eastern literary allusions, and details in the image reference, particularly, the 'Arab' star-names which were introduced into the culture of Latin Europe from the twelfth-century onwards. Thus the figure of Orion is depicted as the Biblical 'fool' but the details include the asterism known (among other names) as the 'String of Pearls' in Arabic. In addition, each of these figures has a place on earth associated with it. The 'hermit' for example is an image of Canopus according to the traditional lore which sees him/it as a hesitant martial figure, while the landscape refers to Canopus as Egypt's port and its lighthouse (the Pharos was not the only lighthouse marking an Egyptian port).

Above: seventeen XV century hand-painted and gilded tarocchi cards of Italian origin in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris). These cards are heavily worked with burnished gold leaf and tooled ornamentation reminiscent of medieval illuminated manuscripts and Books of Hours. This expensive and laborious process was, therefore, only affordable by the wealthy. However, there are no mottoes or heraldic motifs on the cards which makes it less likely they were from a courtly milieu.

Illustrations of cards in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie. Public domain, catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb403537867►