Master of The Playing Cards - Cards

Cards

Many of his engravings, especially the cards, contain compositional elements that also occur in the miniatures of the Giant Bible of Mainz of 1452-3 and other illuminations made in Mainz between then and 1482, including at least one illuminated copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the copy now in Princeton University library. It has been suggested that he painted elements of these miniatures. It is generally thought that both sets derive from a common manuscript model-book of the sort painters are known to have maintained, though this does not rule out his involvement, or that of his workshop, in the painting. There are similar repetitions in many other manuscripts and other works of art, mostly but not all German.

The cards have typical suits for Northern European cards of the period: flowers, birds, deer, beasts of prey and wild men - so five suits in total. Each symbol (or "pip") on a card is different, so the quantity and difficulty of the engraving is far greater than with a modern set (and, equally, rapid play must have been very difficult as there are no numbers). Engraved sets of cards are few; they must have been much more expensive than those made in woodcut, which can be printed in much greater numbers before the matrix wears out. Interestingly and unusually, some of the cards are composed of different little plates, one per pip, which were presumably held together in a frame for printing. Possibly the Master was in Mainz and was influenced by Johannes Gutenberg's movable type. Despite this the majority of the pips are unique, and although they appear rather jumbled as groups, individually many are very fine studies of their subjects. Despite the very few impressions surviving, some cards exist in two states, and some in different versions, all catalogued by Lehrs.