Art Institute of Chicago

Apollo, plate 20 from Apollo and the Muses

Master of the E-Series Tarocchi

Date

c. 1465

Medium

Engraving on paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

These engravings, part of a “deck” of 50 images that resemble playing cards, were probably created in Ferrara. The enigmatic series is organized into five thematic groups: Conditions of Man, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Geniuses and Virtues, and Firmaments of the Universe . Not intended as tarot or playing cards, these tarocchi were most likely used as a didactic iconographical source or model book. Apollo, though crowned and seated on a celestial sphere, is shown in an unusual manner, alongside swans and what could be an ornamented mirror.

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