The Angel of the Ninth Sphere, or Primum Mobile, plate 49 from Planets and Spheres

Prints and Drawings

c. 1465

Master of the E-Series Tarocchi
Italian, active c. 1465

The Ferrara nobility used these enigmatic flash cards, whose engraver’s identity is now unknown, to tutor their children in the structure of the world and the greater cosmos. With images ranging from a human beggar to God himself, the fifty cards in each set were divided into five groups: Ranks and Conditions of Men, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Genii and Virtues, and Planets and Spheres. The stationary angel with the starry disc in plate 48 represents the firmament as a fixed pattern of stars, which according to Ptolemaic thought revolved around the earth. Plate 49 presents the invisible outer sphere as an empty disc held by a dancing angel.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Master of the E-Series Tarocchi
Title: The Angel of the Ninth Sphere, or Primum Mobile, plate 49 from Planets and Spheres
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1460–1470
Medium: Engraving in black on tan laid paper
Dimensions: Image: 16.6 × 9.6 cm (6 9/16 × 3 13/16 in.); Plate: 17.7 × 10 cm (7 × 3 15/16 in.); Sheet: 18.2 × 10.4 cm (7 3/16 × 4 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
Reference Number: 1924.39.15
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/11466/manifest.json

Bartsch XIII.138.66

Hind E.I.49a

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