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Playing Cards

Italian 15th Century

1401

ink

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance

Dominant colour

Playing Cards is a 1401 ink by Italian 15th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: Italian 15th Century
When & what style?: 1401 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This image shows a grid of 24 small woodcut scenes arranged in four rows. The top row has angels, a sun, a moon, a star, and a building with people. The middle rows show people in robes, some holding staffs, others sitting on thrones or standing with animals. The bottom row has crowned figures, some holding globes or books. Each scene has a Roman numeral in the corner. The images look like playing cards—each figure is a different "suit" or rank. The artist used simple black lines against a light background, a common way to make prints before photography. Next, look up woodcut to see how this printing method worked.

About the artist

Artist

Italian 15th Century

This anonymous Italian engraver from the 1490s carved images that could be peeled apart like paper dolls—each knot in the "First Knot" print was cut from a single sheet so you could lift the loops right off the page.

See the richer artist page