The World in Play: Luxury Cards 1430–1540

Husband, Timothy B. (2016)

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Description

In the late Middle Ages and early modern times, card playing was widely enjoyed at all levels of society. The playing cards in this engaging volume are unique works of art that illuminate the transition from late medieval to early modern Europe, a period of tumultuous social, artistic, economic, and religious change. Included are the most important luxury decks of hand-painted European playing cards that have survived, as well as a selection of hand-colored woodblock cards, engraved cards, and tarot packs. The casts of characters they illustrate range from royals to commoners. Many feature animals such as falcons and hounds, while other portray such diverse objects as acorns, helmets, or coins.

This is the only study of its kind in English and the only one in a generation in any language. The insightful narrative by Timothy B. Husband discusses the significance of playing cards in the secular art of the period and also recounts the varied stories they tell, conjuring the customs and facts of life of the time. Little is known abut the games played with these cards, but as Husband notes: "The playing out of a hand of cards can be seen as a microcosmic reflection of the ever-changing world around us—a world in play—a view that the creators of the cards under discussion here would seem to have shared.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword

Preface

The World in Play: Luxury Cards 1430–1540
Timothy B. Husband

Chart of The Courtly Household Cards

Notes

Checklist of the Exhibition

Photograph Credits

Acknowledgments

About the authors

Timothy B. Husband is Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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Exhibition

The World in Play: Luxury Cards 1430 – 1540

January 20–April 17, 2016

Only three decks of European hand-painted playing cards are known to have survived from the late Middle Ages. These include The Cloisters Playing Cards, which will form the core of this small exhibition highlighting one of the more intriguing works of secular art from The Cloisters Collection. Examples of cards from the earliest hand-painted woodblock deck as well as fifteenth-century German engraved cards, north Italian tarot cards of the same period, and the finest deck from the early sixteenth century will complete the display. Collectively, the figures and scenes depicted on these cards reflect changing world views during a period of tumultuous social, economic, and religious change, charting the transition from late medieval to early modern Europe.

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