Two exquisite hand painted tarot cards

[Papageno]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/58617232621363334/

although I have no idea of the actual provenance of these cards, nor should we blindly assume that they are actually part of a collection housed at the Museo Correr in Venice..........there's a lot of misinformation on Pinterest.
This image file is not part of any discussion that I know of on the Tarot History Forum, not that I spend a whole lot of time there.

anyway, enjoy.

[Joan Marie]

These are really beautiful.

It looks like they are painted with gold leaf or something?

Just, as you say, exquisite. Perfect word.

I would love to get some confirmation from someone. I may run this by Giordano Berti or someone at the Tarot Museum in Italy.

[Papageno]

These are really beautiful.

It looks like they are painted with gold leaf or something?

Just, as you say, exquisite. Perfect word.

I would love to get some confirmation from someone. I may run this by Giordano Berti or someone at the Tarot Museum in Italy.

Obtaining authoritative assessment from G. Berti or the Tarot Museum would be an excellent idea.

If it is gold leaf, then it was applied, it has the look of being embossed, or probably laid over a raised form and then very gently hammered over a mold .....the color of the gold looks correct and displays only minimal tarnishing which implies that the gold is very pure.

The patina of the blue, black and red paints are surprisingly vibrant....mineral pigments?
A pigment derived from an organic vegetative dye would have faded and discolored to some degree, and I don't see evidence of that in these two cards.

The borders......are they painted with pigment, silver or highly alloyed gold? That would account for the dark discoloration.
It reminds me of some of the Visconti cards.

Overall, the two cards look remarkably pristine.

In a similar vein...........

Giovanni dal Ponte [Giovanni di Marco] and the collection of the Rothschild cards housed at the Louvre.

http://trionfi.com/0/c/40/

Here are links to discussions about dal Ponte and the Rothschild cards, and related
matters:

http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1005

http://rothschildcards.blogspot.com/2015/

[giordanoberti]

Hello friends,
thanks for asking to me
The two cards in the pics come from a group of fou, today kept at the Correr Museum in Venice.
The catalog of the Museum tells:

FOUR NUMERAL CARDS
Ferrara, end on 15th century
Xilographics hand painted, 180 x 93 mm
Back: white
These four illuminated cards were part of a Tarot deck made in Ferrara from the end of the fifteenth century. They are all of different seeds, precisely. Ace of Swords, Two of Clubs, Four of Cups and Four of Coins.

The record card does not specify an important detail: some parts are coated with a gold foil.

[giordanoberti]

Regarding a the possible link between the 4 cards of the Correr Museum and those of the Louvre Museum (Rothschild collection), the impossibility that they come from the same deck has already been reported by various scholars, not only for evident differences in composition but also for the considerable difference in size. The only thing in common is in the production area, which is referred to be ferrarese.
Kaplan 1978 p.120 and 123. Dummett 1980 p. 72. Algeri 1987 p.39

[Papageno]

Now we have four exquisite hand painted cards.

we can see now that the first image featuring the 2 of batons and 4 of coins was digitally enhanced, the vibrancy of the blue in the floral motif as well as the color of the paper, didn't make sense.

Also, notice that the damaged corner in the upper left corner of the 2 of batons.
This was digitally repaired, and you can see the small bleached out appearance of the repaired (restored) corner just below the
border of the card.

Thank you G. Berti for the image of the four cards from the catalog of the Correr Museum in Venice.