The Chariot Tarot Card Meaning and Art: Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment: Queen of Tarot

The Chariot Tarot Card Meaning and Art Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment

Designation

About the Deck

Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment

(aka Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Tarot Deck) One of the earliest Tarot Decks, the Pierpont Morgan Deck is entirely gilded, with fine paintings upon it.

It is estimated to have been produced around 1451 or 1452, possibly for a triumphal event in 1453.

Provenance

Italy, c. 1452.

According to Many Schools of Thought

A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings

The Chariot. This is represented in some extant codices as being drawn by two sphinxes, and the device is in consonance with the symbolism, but it must not be supposed that such was its original form; the variation was invented to support a particular historical hypothesis. In the eighteenth century white horses were yoked to the car. As regards its usual name, the lesser stands for the greater; it is really the King in his triumph, typifying, however, the victory which creates kingship as its natural consequence and not the vested royalty of the fourth card. M. Court de Gebelin said that it was Osiris Triumphing, the conquering sun in spring-time having vanquished the obstacles of winter. We know now that Osiris rising from the dead is not represented by such obvious symbolism. Other animals than horses have also been used to draw the currus triumphalis, as, for example, a lion and a leopard.