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A heavy-weight deck, full of meanings and deeply rooted in ancient designs and worldviews.
The deck's roots
Made for U.S Games Systems in 1984, the deck reproduces Cary-Yale and Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo cards collections, which gather some of the Visconti-Sforza's Tarot cards from the XV c. The last one represents the Renaissance noble class of Mylan, especially the members of the Visconti and Sforza families. Although no complete deck of that Tarot has survived over time, the designs have influenced the visual composition, numeration and perspective of modern decks. Scapini's deck came out from those representations as well as from Mantegna's Tarot worldview.
The Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo cards collection was made in 1451, approximately. Like the Ace of Cups and the Knight of Swords display, Scapini's minor arcana (Ace to X) are all painted in creme color and include flowers and vineyards designs. And the major cards and court figures show golden backgrounds in a 3-row and 3-column grid distribution, and with a floor, as it can be appreciated in the Knight of the collection (exceptions are The World XXI, with no ground, and the Queen of Coins, the only card with two backgrounds).
About the Mantegna's Tarot, it seems it had inspired The Medieval Tarot's drawings (TMT), too. But the Mantegna is based on a specific worldview, with cards motifs going much beyond Scapini's Tarot mundane life. The Mantegna was made between 1465 and 1470 (contemporary to Visconti-Sforza's deck) and has been attributed to Andrea Mantegna, Baccio Baldini (goldsmith and engraver) and other artists related to Francesco del Cossa (all of them from the Italian School of Ferrara). The school's style in the Renaissance Age displayed emaciated bodies and faces, of static and painful expressions.
Mantegna's deck is made of two series of 50 cards each, gathered in 5 sets according to the subjects they refer to. Group A (cards 41-50) refers to the 7 planets known by those times, the octave sphere (fixed stars), the Primum Mobile (First Cause) and the Prima Causa (God). Group B (cards 31-40) portrays geniuses and virtues. Group C (cards 21-30) reflects the 7 liberal arts, along with Philosophy, Poetry and Theology. Group D (cards 11-20) shows the 9 art muses and Apollo. And Group E (cards 1-10) represents the medieval social hierarchy, from beggar to Emperor and Pope.
About the groups, Adam McLean in An Hermetic Origin of the Tarot Cards? says they represent the relation between the Macro-cosmos (Group A) and the Micro-cosmos (Group E). The other groups are pathways of development, inspiration and transmutation. In his article, McLean includes each group composition, with their specific symbols and associations, and also offers a brief comparison to modern cards, for example by pairing the medieval Artisan (card 3, Group E) with The Magician.
Charity card (38) of Mantegna's Tarot belongs to group B (geniouses and virtues). All of the virtues are next to an animal figure (a pelycan in this case, that nurtures its pups with its own blood).
Profusion & dualism
Mantegna's worldview can be traced in Scapini's deck, for example in the inclusion of animals and in a widely present dualistic perspective in concepts and designs. Along with a lot of biblical references, any reading should start from considering falls and ascensions. Duality is also appreciated, for example, in the color distribution and yin-yang principles attached to sex characteristics (golden for male and silver for female; yin for female and opposite to male yang in the Two of Swords). All of this can also be seen in some other specific cards:
The Popess II includes the representation of a demonic serpent offering an apple from one of the columns, which is supported by a black sphynx representing, at the same time, tthe female side in life.
The Pope V includes representations of vices at the bottom area, which are considered as sins to be defeated for triumphing.
The Lovers VI represent vices and virtues either, the first ones associated to a sunny pleasant pathway, and the second ones to a hard ground pathway.
The Chariot VII clearly opposes spirituality to sensuality, and thinks of them as two natural human impulses, which have to be controlled and harmonized. This is represented by two horses, one white and the other one black, one of them oriented upwards and the other one downwards, with tails forming a kind of a winged seed when joined.
Temperance XIV shows again the separation of sexes in the colors and symbols on vessels (Sun and golden for male, Moon and silver for female); the winged figure holding them is androgynous, which means the union of opposites happens in spiritual spheres, after ascending, and not in the mundane, sensual and physical experience.
The World XXI assigns stars to the angel and the eagle (top area), whereas flames are on fire in the mundane lion and bull (bottom).
The Ace of Coins displays a main figure: a boy with a red band (Wands) enclosing his body and covering his eyes; the figure holds up a huge gold coin and has two blue wings (Cups); behind his head, and at his shoulders' height, a second head shows up.
The difference between life spheres and experiences, inside of a worldview of low and high zones, also relates high heights to ascension by making blood sacrifices, as the crucifixion in The Hanged Man (XII) clearly shows. It can also be appreciated in Coins and Cups suits. Especially the Ace of Coins offers a bloody first impression, although the deck's guidebook describes the hanging elements as roots, rocks and crystals. Inside of the coin, the classical richness of the material experience in the garden of Hesperides spreads blood out, and is supported by a child who doesn't see what he holds up or what it costs. Again, sensuality and material abundance seem to be associated to the absence of vision, young age and poured blood.
Under the same concept of sacrifice and blood, some cards of the Cups suit show a thick liquid creating a kind of a dense line as it falls. In other cards, the liquid is drop-shaped although in some others a sense of pouring out comes again, especially in those ones associated to fortune, encounters, abundance and earning (Ace, 2, 3 and 7). A card displaying quite well this characteristic is the Seven, which includes 7 elements with liquid inside although all of them lose it but the one showing an Etruscan face (a rustic one). The classical triumph meaning of the card seems to be lost when it's about physical stimulation, personal horizons, shared projects, dreams and good luck. Again, the emotional experience provided by material circumstances is not associated to triumph and, instead, the last one remains just as part of physical and stylistic sobriety.
TMT includes other type of elements in the entire deck, and repeatedly, like tulips and waxing moons. But beyond those recurrences, each card holds within a profusion of elements of different kind, whose details and drawings are described in the deck's guidebook: Renaissance paintings, gods from different regions, temples, cathedrals and monasteries, biblical scenes, characters related to the Renaissance Venice, medieval legends, Greek myths, saints, animals of all kind (real and fantastic ones), cabbalistic symbols, Rasputin, Pope Leo X, Marco Polo, oracles, yin-yang and several nuns, just to mention some elements!
Among all of them, there's two strange references out of the deck's time: a sportsman with a racquet and visor in the Seven of Wands, and a Ku Klux Klan's procession in the Queen of Swords. Although these elements are mentioned in the guidebook, it doesn't tell the reason why they have been included in a deck of medieval inspiration.
Major cards
Deities. Apollo (the Sun God) is displayed as a lyre in The Sun XIX, next to Castor and Pollux inside of an egg (the twins related to Gemini constellation). Hermes (the messenger of gods), with a solar head, can be found at the bottom in Strength XI. Chiron (the centaur) replaces Cupid (the god of love) in The Lovers VI. Hercules looks like a child in The Sun XIX. Kali (the destructive Hindu deity) inspired the skeleton gesture in Death XIII. Anubis (the Egyptian jackal-head god of the underworld) is the classic representacion of card Moon XVIII.
It includes the Group C of Mantegna's Tarot at the bottom.
Force is based on Death of Adam (by Piero della Francesca. 1452).
Suit of Swords
Associations. White is the color of the suit, and Spring time is the season. The handles usually include very meaningful elements, such as a statue of Victory, vampires, harpies, postilion horns, veiled figures, the traitors to the Caesar, a fox head, the ancient swastika cross and an eagle's head. The suit also displays the Chinese yin-yang symbol in four cards (Ace, Two, Three and Knight).
Relations of cards. 1) The author explicitely relates card Three to The Fool, in which a young character is walking like that of card 0, after he's been sent away by three relatives. The swords' handles in card Three also represent The Fool in other decks (Visconti-Sforza, Marseille and Mantegna), so the relatives of the young man might also be alluded to by them; 2) The Nine of Swords is related to the Page and Queen. Card Nine is mainly about a sarcophagus with the Page on the right side although old aged, demented and huddling in a knot. And the sarcophagus is made of red sandstone, like the base where the Queen is perched on.
Deities. The suit doesn't allude to any.
Animals. A serpent, a fox, a pig, horses, a crow, night birds, a fly, a black cat, a red dragon, and a swan.
Ace of Spades includes Cain and Abel brothers, each aside on the handle.
Six of Swords is based on The Conversion of St Paul on his way to Damasco (by Caravaggio. 1600. Oil over cypress).
Suit of Cups
Associations. The suit is associated to blue-green colors and Summer season.
Relations of cards. The man in card Two is associated to the Vatican's guard in the Page (same color cloths). But the cup the last one holds is the opposite representation of those in card Two: it displays two lovers too, although they're not together in desire and passion anymore but only as angels.
Deities. Silenus (tutor of Dyonisius the god of wine, and son of Pan the ruler of shepherds and flocks) is drawn as a drunk man in card Four. Eros (the god of love) is a blind man in the same card.
Animals. A cat, a serpent, horned dolphins, a pigeon, a cicala, a mouse, a spider, seahorses, an eagle, a frog, and a mule.
The figure is St Lucy, the patron of blind people. She carries a trumpet which, in the Mantegna's Tarot, is Calliope's symbol, the muse of "the beautiful voice" who rules epic poetry and eloquence.
The Mona Lisa is painted on the floor, St Peter's Cathedral on the background, and a bust of Venus of Milo aside.
King of Cups resembles Pope Leo X (1475-1521) in the painting by Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano (1565-69, oil over tin). The Pope said: "God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it" (cite from Rendina, C, (2013). I papi. Storia e segreti. Roma. p. 614).
Suit of Wands
Associations. The suit especially displays red colors, and is associated to Autumn season and the working class.
Relations of cards. Scapini just mentions one: the servants in the Six and the Page share the same livery, although the first ones are still serving and the second one is now set free (although he still carries an unchained fetter).
Deities. Hercules is displayed as a divinized heroe in the Ace.
Animals. It only includes a cat in the Queen.
The Ace of Wands includes Hercules holding a furious serpent, and two gnomes at the bottom, representing strength and hard work.
The figure in violet is Pantaleone, a Venice carnival character, an old merchant of a large nose with his mind focused on businesses. In the card, he receives coins from a woman.
Suit of Coins
Associations. It's a golden color suit, and related to Winter season. It also usually displays rooted coins, as if the source of wealth would be very important. The artist drawned them as rocks, crystals, spirals, tubers, charms, jewels, rolled papers and open papers (Six), and even as planets (Eight) and the steps towards a castle (Ten).
Relations of cards. 1). Card Seven is associated to the four Pages of the deck, who are seated around a game table, between 7 coins in a 3-column distribution: the Full Moon, a lyle flower and a grown tree are placed on the right side of a winner figure; the left column is related to material wealth although there's a sleeping boy and a soul in purgatory; in the central column, Saturn's chariot, a planet that Scapini assigned to Judgement card; 2) In card Nine, a sinuous pathway leads to trouble as more coins are founded on the road. At the beginning is the Page of Swords (Brighella, another character of the Venetian carnival), described by the author as "a smart villain who would do anything for money".
Deities. The suit gathers the planets known by the Middle Age. Mercury (the messenger of gods) is in cards Two and the Page, Venus (the goddess of love and arts) is in card Three, Mars (the god of war) is in card Five, Jupiter (the greatest one among the gods) is in card Six, and Saturn (the god of time) is in card Seven.
Animals. The suit of Coins includes more animals than the suit of Wands although fewer than the other two suits: there's an ox, a lamb, a swan and a cat.
The standing figure resembles Leonardo da Vinci.
The head of the King of Coins resembles Francesco Morosini's portrait, a militar, senator and duke of Venice in the XVII c., who fought against the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire.
Note of the author: images of paintings displayed in the article might not be exact or complete pictures of the original ones.
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