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Lot Essay
The subject may be emblematic of Hope, the source being the so-called 'Tarocchi' cards of Mantegna, a group of fifty engravings divided into several groups. Hope is one of ten images in the fourth group of the set and illustrates the 'Cosmic Principles' (or 'Genii' and 'Virtues').1 Hope is shown standing with hands clasped in prayer, gazing up towards a celestial light, with the addition of a phoenix rising from a flaming pyre at her side, see the engraving in the British Museum (1845,0825.341) and Bartsch, Vol. 13, p. 129, (56). For a similarly decorated dish depicting Temperance from the four Cardinal Virtues see Timothy Wilson, Italian Maiolica of the Renaissance, Milan, 1996, pp. 124-125, fig. 58 and for a dish painted with Justice see Carlo Fiocco, Gabriella Gherardi et al., Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Dijon, 2003, p. 37, no. 17.
1. The first three images of this group, the so-called 'Genii', do not have artistic precedents and appear to be the invention of the author of the 'Tarocchi' series. They are followed by the seven Virtues who bear recognisable attributes and are traditionally divided into a group of four (the Cardinal Virtues of Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice) and another of three (the Theological Virtues of Charity, Hope, and Faith).
1. The first three images of this group, the so-called 'Genii', do not have artistic precedents and appear to be the invention of the author of the 'Tarocchi' series. They are followed by the seven Virtues who bear recognisable attributes and are traditionally divided into a group of four (the Cardinal Virtues of Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice) and another of three (the Theological Virtues of Charity, Hope, and Faith).