Bologna and the origin of Triumphs

Triumphs, Tarots and Tarocchini in Bologna from the XV to the XX century

"Master Jacamo painter called Sagramoro today February the 10th in remuneration for his work of having painted and coloured 4 pairs of triumph cards,... which serve our Lord for his use..." (Maistro Iacomo depentore dito Sagramoro de avere adi 10 fiebraro per sue merzede de avere cho(lo)rido e depento.... 4 para de chartexele da trionffi, ... le quale ave lo nostro Signore per suo uxo...) (figure 1)

Besides, the court cards are six instead of four, with the addition of a Female Knight (figure 2) and Page in each suit

(figure 3) the order of the Tarot of Charles VI is compared with the traditional one of Bologna.

in the Chariot we find a standing warrior on a cart dragged by two horses with a sword in its sheath and a halberd in his hand (figure 4)

Strength is represented by a young girl in the action of breaking a column in accord with the iconography of the Christian virtue Fortitude (figure 5)

Hanged man holds in his hands two pouches of coins, as we find again in a tarot of Bologna of the XVI century (figure 6

Death is represented by a skeleton on a horse (figure 7)

the Tower possesses the same aspect of a castle door (figure 8)

the Moon is connoted by the presence of astrologers (figure 9

the Sun by a woman who is spinning (figure 10)

the World we find a woman (Fame) set with her feet on top of the earth depicted inside a circle (figure 11

mperor Theodosius’s depiction (figure 12) as it is in the so-called Mantegna Tarot (figure 13), is the manuscript codex Constitutions and privileges of the Bolognese study of 1467

In the Medieval Civic Museum in Bologna there is a stone bas-relief (11) from the same period that shows Charity(figure 14) with the Misero (The Impoverished One)

the Misero (The Impoverished One) and Zentilomo (Gentleman) as represented in the Mantegna Tarot (figure 15 - figure 16).

engraved copies inserted in the work of Giampietro Zanotti, The Paintings of Pellegrino Tibaldi and Niccolò Abbati, printed in Venice in 1757(figure 17).

Certainly two sheets of the XVI century come from Bologna, one of which is in the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and the other one in the Rothschild collection in the Louvre Museum, both belonging to the same deck, in which we find the Sun, the World, the Hanged Man, the Wheel, the Angel, and the Hermit in the former (figure 18

the Tower, the Star, the Moon, the Devil, the Chariot and Death in the latter (figure 19). These images are truly similar to those of the Bolognese Tarocchino of the XVI century

Queen of Staves appears the coat of arms of the Fibbia Family (figure 22

A wonderful example of the XVII century Bolognese Tarot is conserved at the National Library of Paris: it is a deck composed of 56 cards (out of a total of 62) engraved on wood and then stencil-painted, as reported in the workFine Cards Dalla Torre in Bologna (figure 20 - figure 21

Subjects pertaining to cards and players were not unusual for Mitelli, who produced several engravings of this sort, such as Considerable Conversation, which shows us various caricatures of card players around a table (figure 23)

¿Miteli? the engraving Who plays for money loses by necessity, with a man who is going to denude himself because he has lost all his goods (figure 24

¿Miteli? engraving taken from the series The twenty four hours of Human happinessof 1665, representing a player almost dancing near a table on which there are cards, dice and money, elements that are on the floor as well (figure 25)

the Magician becomes a kind of dancing jester (figure 26 - figure 27 - figure 28).

card of the Fool (figure 29) as Misto [Mixed]