Tuesday, December 17, 2019

More Tarot-relevant art from York Minster

From Joseph Halfpenny's Gothic Ornament: Architectural Motifs from York Cathedral (1795).

This is, I suppose, an abbess, but her crozier might easily cause her to be mistaken for a female bishop, and her crown (unusual but not unheard-of for an abbess) is something one associates with the papacy. She is also holding a book, as is the Female Pope of the Tarot.



These two depictions of Samson show that holding a lion's jaws open (as in the Strength card of the Tarot) was standard symbolic shorthand for victory over that beast.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first looks like St. Etheldreda of Ely: http://www.traditionalcatholicpriest.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/iu4.jpeg

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Thank you! Halfpenny didn't mention who she was. Etheldreda was both an abbess and a queen, hence the crozier and crown.

Knaves all three

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick. Jack be be rapid, Jack be fleet, Jack jump over the slab of meat. Jack be has...