Artwork, etc.: phase 2 redux - observe the law of equivalent exchange

This week I spent a lot of time researching.

Books, Books, Books

I had a grant application due (submitted - thumbs up!)...which meant a project proposal...which meant having a (hopefully coherent :)) project to propose...and hence - research.

Shifting gears from one project to another tends to be challenging for me. There are so many things I want to make, but I find that to direct enough energy toward making something significant, I basically have to put on "idea blinders" and let go all but a few of my schemes (exchange!) I want to chose carefully, so I started sifting.

Mantegna, Might, ca. 1465
from his tarot deck,

from the Visconti-Sforza tarot,

at Beinecke library, Yale

I started with something I've been thinking about from Eros et Thanatos. The installation relates to Mille Fleure tapestry design, but looking at the photos of it installed, I want to try something different in terms of the relationship of the plants and animals to the background. Also, I've been ruminating on the relationship of text to artwork. Those things led me to think about "Gothic things besides tapestries which include Mille Fleure and text," which led me to the Visconti Deck (Mmmmmmm).

Schongauer, second wise virgin, 1483
one of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

Giotto , Wrath, fresco, ca. 1305
one of the Virtues and Vices
in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

So I started researching tarot decks - I never knew that one of my favorite artists, Mantegna, designed a tarot deck (gorgeousness).

His technique in these reminded me of another one of my favorite artists, Schongauer, who often worked in series, including the "Wise and Foolish Virgins."

Botticelli, Fortitude, 1470,
one of seven virtues
(the other 6 by Pollaiolo)
Uffizi, Florence

The "Wise and Foolish" got me thinking about "Virtue" and "Vice," so I looked up Giotto's "7 Virtues and 7 Vices."

Fortune
often associated with Bellini's
Allegories
in the Academia, Venice

Which got me thinking about Botticelli's "Fortitude" which is also part of a "7 Virtues" set.

Then I started thinking about less literal allegorical paintings and I thought of these small panels, attributed (with on-going debate)to Giovanni Bellini, of which my favorite is Fortune.

The presence of the two water jugs brought me back to the tarot.

After all that, what did I learn?

The more things change, the more they stay the same? haha!

And that, tolerant reader, is how I ended up writing a grant proposal for support to make life-sized interpretations of tarot cards (hopefully I justified it much more elegantly in the proposal - fingers crossed!)

There was also a section in the proposal about fractals...