print;
playing-card
- Museum number
- 1895,0915.7
- Description
-
Doge; standing and turned slightly to left, he wears a robe and a hat and he rests his right hand upon his belt; inscribed at lower left: 'E', at lower centre: 'DOXE VII' and at lower right: '7'; encircled by a frame of diamonds. c.1465
Engraving
- Production date
- 1465 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 178 millimetres
-
Width: 101 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The print belongs to the first version (called 'E series') of a group of fifty engravings traditionally known as the 'Tarocchi Cards of Mantegna' (for this set see the entry for Hind E.I.1a: P&D 1895-9-15-1). It is one of the ten images of the first group of the set, which is marked with the letter "E" and illustrates the 'Conditions of Man' in order of ascending importance.
The Doge was the titular head of government in Venice. Kristeller regarded this figure as a proof that the series of engraved Tarocchi were produced in that city, while Hind pointed out that the representation of the Doge would have been an appropriate choice for a ruler almost anywhere in northern Italy. Moreover, he noted that the Venetian dialect of the inscription (as well as that of the inscriptions "artixan" and "zintilomo" in the preceding engravings) could also be that of Ferrara, located a mere fifty miles to the south of Venice.
Other impressions of the print are in Vienna; Paris; Berlin; Boston; Florence (Galleria degli Uffizi), Florence (Biblioteca Nazionale); Chantilly; Darmstadt (Hessisches Landesmuseum); in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe (Rome); in the Chicago Art Institute; in the Cleveland Museum of Art; Hamburg; in the Rothschild collection (Louvre, Paris); in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Naples (Museo di Capodimonte); Pavia (Raccolta Malaspina, Museo Civico); in the National Gallery of Art (Washington); and elsewhere.
See also Jay A. Levinson, Konrad Oberhuber, and Jacquelyn Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1973, no. 19.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.7
