id: 106397 accession number: 1924.432.6 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.6 updated: 2023-03-04 09:29:28.416000 The Knight (from the Tarocchi, series E: Conditions of Man, #6), before 1467. Master of the E-Series Tarocchi (Italian, 15th century). Engraving; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1924.432.6 title: The Knight (from the Tarocchi, series E: Conditions of Man, #6) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: before 1467 creation date earliest: 1457 creation date latest: 1467 current location: creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, Ferrara, 15th century technique: engraving department: Prints collection: PR - Engraving type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Hind E.I. 6a --- CREATORS * Master of the E-Series Tarocchi (Italian, 15th century) - artist --- measurements: state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Lettered below the image of Chavalier (The Knight): ·E· / CHAVALIER·VI· / ·6· translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA 1996: Sets and Series: Five Centuries of Master Prints, February 20-May 5, 1996, no cat. --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: This engraving is part of the Tarocchi group marked with the letter “E,” and named Conditions of Man. This series outlines the social and hierarchical order of ten characters (Beggar, Servant, Artisan, Merchant, Gentleman, Knight, Doge King, Emperor, and Pope), starting from the lower grade and ending with the most important one.

Here, Chavalier (The Knight) is shown as a full-length male figure, turned to the left. The elegantly dressed man is holding a dagger in his hands. Behind him on the left, a servant is carrying a sword. wall description: While differing greatly from traditional Tarocchi or tarot cards, this set earned its misleading name because of a few, unimportant similarities. Never a game, scholars generally agree that this set was an educational tool, used to visually describe a fifteenth-century philosophical model of the universe. It was believed that the universe was a ladder-like structure that began with the beggar and rose through the ranks of man, the muses, the liberal arts, the virtues, and the planets, until it finally reached the pinnacle, the dwelling place of God. Reflecting this order, these fifty engravings were divided into five groups of ten: the Conditions of Man; Apollo and the Muses; the Liberal Arts (with three added disciplines—Poetry, Philosophy, and Theology); the Virtues (with three personifications of cosmic principles called "genii"); and the Firmaments of the Universe. Designed, engraved, and hand-colored in gold by anonymous artists and craftsmen, the series exists in two versions. The museum's set, known as the "E" series (named for the letter in the lower left corner of the prints in the first group of ten), is believed to be the original, while the "S" series (the letter "S" was substituted for the "E") is considered to be an inferior copy, made within a decade of the first. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.432.6/1924.432.6_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.432.6/1924.432.6_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.432.6/1924.432.6_full.tif