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VERSION 2.0 IN PROGRESS

Temporary, for editorial feedback only - please do not bookmark or download

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Six of Cups
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Two small children sit in a garden with six flower-filled cups. One of the childen reads a book and the other holds a bird. A small black monkey sits at their feet. In the background is a walled city.

My Interpretation: Remembrance of childhood joys. Innocence and faithful acceptance. Unquestioning and unconditional love. A yearning for simpler times and less responsibility. But beware of nostalgia - you cannot return to the past. (Reversed: Beware of sentimentalising the past. Was it really so much better than now, or was it more that you were too young and naive to see the world for what it really was?)

Edit notes to self: Different to v1.0 card as I've added more symbolism to assist readers and made it far more similar to the Rider-Waite card. The reading child is said to be a member of the Sforza family, used as a tribute to the place these patrons had in development of the Tarot in Renaissance society. Still to do - pretty happy with it.

Sources:

Base Pic: Vincenzo Foppa, Italian painter, Milanese school (b. 1427/30, Brescia, d. 1515/16, Brescia); The Young Cicero Reading c. 1464 Fresco, 101.6 x 143.7 cm Wallace Collection, London (cut from the wall of the Palazzo Mediceo, Milan c. 1863).

Red Robe Baby: Simone Martini, Italian painter, Sienese school (b. 1280/85, Siena, d. 1344, Avignon); Madonna and Child (from Castiglione d'Orcia) 1320-25 Tempera on wood Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.

Garden with Monkey: Unknown German Master, (active in 1410s in the Upper Rhineland); The Garden of Eden c. 1410. Tempera on wood, 26.3 X 33.4 cm Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt.

Red Walled Castle: Benozzo Gozzoli, Italian painter, Florentine school (b. cca. 1420, Firenze, d. 1497, Pistoia); The Departure of St Jerome from Antioch 1452 Fresco Cappella di San Gerolamo, San Francesco, Montefalco.

Roses: Domenico Veneziano, Italian painter, Florentine school (b. cca. 1410, Venezia ?, d. 1461, Firenze ?); Madonna and Child after 1447 Tempera on wood, 83 x 57 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Sky: Paulo Uccello, Italian painter, Florentine school (b. 1397, Firenze, d. 1475, Firenze); St. George and the Dragon c. 1456 Oil on canvas, 57 x 73 cm National Gallery, London.

Cup: Master of the Housebook, German engraver/painter (active 1475-90); The Last Supper late 1400s Wood, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

Cup Gilt Texture: Conrad Witz, Swiss painter (b. cca 1400, Rottweil, d. cca. 1445, Basel); King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 1435 Panel, 84 x 79 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

Parchment Text Panel: Unknown Illuminators, England; The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24), written and illuminated around 1200. Aberdeen University, Scotland.

Gilt Border: Conrad Witz, Swiss painter (b. cca 1400, Rottweil, d. cca. 1445, Basel); King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 1435 Panel, 84 x 79 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin.