King of Swords Sola-Busca
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[edit] Description
A king holding a sword with its point down in its left hand and a globe in his right hand. The globe is very similar to that we see in the highest trump, Nabuchodenasor. He is sitting on a griffin throne. The wheel of the car can be seen behind the throne.
[edit] Image references
The King of Swords of the Sola-Busca deck has a similar posture to the earlier Visconti-Sforza king of swords.
At the Municiapl Library of Rouen an interesting tarot deck is present (Kaplan vol. I p. 133). Only thirty cards survive. The trumps and the figures represent historycal / mythical characters, similarly to the Sola-Busca deck. The king of Swords is Alexander Magnus Rex Macedonicus i.e. "Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia". The analogy with the Sola-Busca card is not only the name of character: also in this case the posture is similar. The deck was probably produced during the early XVI Century (a few decades after the Sola-Busca).
The Sola-Busca king looks some-how as a specular image of the other two: his right knee is bended and his left leg is straight. In the Visconti-Sforza and Rouen cards, the right leg is straight and the left knee bended.
The Rouen card looks like a mixture of the other two. Possibly the author knew both the Sola-Busca deck and (some copy of) the Visconti-Sforza deck. Kaplan (vol. II, chapter II) gives evidence of the existence of hand-painted copies of the Visconti cards produced in the XV Century.
[edit] Textual references
[edit] Fazio degli Uberti Dittamondo
Book 4 - Chapter I
poi seguiva Alessandro e di costui 55 Then followed ALEXANDER and it seems prima parea che statua d'oro That APOLLO received a golden statue Apollin ricevesse che d'altrui. From him before than from anybody else.
Apollino (Apollo) is the Knight of Batons.
[edit] Dante Alighieri "The Divine Commedy"
Inferno (Hell) - Canto 12
Alexander is in the seventh circle, where the violent against their neighbor are punished.
Some there I mark'd, as high as to their brow
Immersed, of whom the mighty Centaur thus:
"These are the souls of tyrants, who were given
To blood and rapine. Here they wail aloud
Their merciless wrongs. Here Alexander dwells,
And Dionysius fell, who many a year
Of woe wrought for fair Sicily. .... "
