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Playing Cards

Italian 15th Century

1470

ink

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance

Dominant colour

Playing Cards is a 1470 ink by Italian 15th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: Italian 15th Century
When & what style?: 1470 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This image shows a grid of simple black-and-white shapes on a light background. The top three rows have tall, narrow boxes filled with drawings of ornate vases stacked in pairs. The bottom three rows have round designs—some look like flowers or rosettes, others like small circles with dots inside. The edges are framed by a thin border with repeating circular patterns. The artist used a single tool to carve the design into wood, then inked it to make prints. This was a common way to share images before photography. Look up technique: woodcut next to see how this process works.

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