Olga D. Belova
( Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

The “Death” Card from the Tarot Pack Pierpont Morgan — Bergamo and Macabre Themes in Italian Art of the 14th and 15th сenturies

The subject of this research is the card “Death” from a Milan tarot pack of the 15th century, which is now kept in the Pierpont Morgan library in New York. Only 3 of these cards exist nowadays — one in the Yale University, one in the Victoria and Albert museum in London and one in the Pierpont Morgan library. The Death image on this card doesn’t match with any of known iconographies of Death, which were widespread in the 15th century. However, having considered the most frequently used types, it is possible to see certain connection between the image on the card from the Pierpont Morgan library and еру iconography of the «Triumph of Death».
It is testified by the attributes of Death on the card from New York (generally, Death’s weapon), and by its isolated character. The “Dance of Death” iconography and “the Encounter between the Three Living and the Three Dead” are far more peaceful and always represent some kind of communication between Dead (or Death) and Living. The same iconography was used for the similar card in another pack, which is the closest to our card in time and circumstances of creation. So we suppose, that “Triumph of Death” iconography is the nearest one to our tarot card, but we don’t deny the existence of the connection with some other Death iconographies. However we don’t believe that this similarity can be considered as a proof of a direct connection between Petrarch’s Italian triumphs and tarot cards.