This is a print that shows a set of twenty-four playing cards arranged in three horizontal rows of eight. Each card is decorated with traditional and symbolic imagery, such as crowns, flowers, swords, and people dressed in medieval attire, including some humans and some centaurs. From these images, four symbols seem to repeat several times: swords, staffs, goblets, and round plates. The cards in the bottom row all show different amounts of goblet-like shapes, from two to nine. The designs of the cards have been printed in black ink on off-white paper that is slightly damaged and discolored…
Gallery mode Full size at the museum

Playing Cards

Italian 15th Century

15th century

Medium
woodcut on laid paper
Classification
Print
Dimensions
sheet: 30 × 44.1 cm (11 13/16 × 17 3/8 in.)
Culture
Lombard
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CG-E
Credit line
Rosenwald Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art

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