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Playing Cards

Italian 15th Century

1401

ink

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Allegory

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 36 small woodcut squares arranged in four rows of nine. The top two rows mix people, animals, and objects like thrones, crowns, and musical instruments. The bottom two rows are all vases or urns with different shapes and patterns. The lines are sharp and the whole thing looks like it was carved into wood, then printed. The people in the top rows wear fancy clothes and crowns, suggesting they might represent royalty or important figures. The vases below could symbolize wealth or status, which ties into the idea of playing cards as status symbols. 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