Papers by Christophe Poncet
The Renaissance Studiolo in Europe, 2022
Imagined in the fourth century by the Latin poet Prudence in his Psychomachia, the feminine alleg... more Imagined in the fourth century by the Latin poet Prudence in his Psychomachia, the feminine allegories of the virtues enjoyed great iconographic success throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Cardinal Virtues of Esztergom's studiolo are part of this vast corpus. However, a careful study of the graphic peculiarities of Temperance and Justice reveals similarities between these figures and works produced by Florentine workshops in the years 1460-1475. This paper shows that Esztergom's Justice and Temperance are graphically related to Florentine models that Botticelli also used in his early works. These observations constitute strong clues in support of an early dating of the Cardinal Virtues (before 1471) and therefore corroborate the attribution of these works to Botticelli.
Arcana Naturae, 2020
In the tarot of Marseille, a card deck whose origins date back to the Italian Renaissance, the Ma... more In the tarot of Marseille, a card deck whose origins date back to the Italian Renaissance, the Magician card bears the number I in the trumps series. This article aims at identifying the graphic sources of this image and to highlight its kinship with a figure characterized in the writings of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499): that of the illusionist, divine sophist and demiurge assimilated with the Son of God.
Bruniana & Campanelliana, 2016
This contribution focuses on the image of the lantern as a representation of the powers of imagin... more This contribution focuses on the image of the lantern as a representation of the powers of imagination in the writings of Marsilio Ficino. It projects a mysterious shadow in his commentary on Plato's myth of the cave and reappears as a Pythagorean symbol in one of his letters, but it sheds the brightest light in the Theologia platonica. In book 4, Ficino tells a fable featuring a philosopher carrying a lantern on his way to Athens. Probably inspired by the famous anecdote about Diogenes the Cynic looking for a man, Ficino reinterprets and adapts this image to show how imagination allows reproducing ideal realities in the sensible world.
Bruniana & Campanelliana, 2018
In several passages of his commentaries on Plato and Plotinus, Marsilio Ficino outlines a diagram... more In several passages of his commentaries on Plato and Plotinus, Marsilio Ficino outlines a diagram of the masculine reproductive system conceived as the vector of seminal power, from intelligence towards the physical world. This article aims at showing that this representation, combined with iconographical elements borrowed from illustrations of Petrarch's Triumphs and the tradition of the Dance of Death, probably inspired the figure of a skeleton armed with a scythe that illustrates the thirteenth trump card of the tarot of Marseille.
This note investigates the path that led to the creation of the Chariot trump of the Tarot “of Ma... more This note investigates the path that led to the creation of the Chariot trump of the Tarot “of Marseille” (fig. 2). The track originates from a drawing by the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini showing a triumphal wagon pulled by two horses (fig. 3) and probably made in the context of the competition organized in Ferrara shortly after 1441 to select an artistic project for an equestrian sculpture. This sketch appears to have inspired a Ferrarese tarot card, dated around 1450, and presenting an allegorical figure on a chariot (fig. 1). Probably due to the participation of Toscan artists in the contest, it seems that the design leaked to Florence, as revealed by a niello engraved by the Florentine Maso Finiguerra before 1464 that presents striking similarities to the Ferrarese card (fig. 4, on front cover). Finally, the Chariot card of the tarot “of Marseille” obviously borrows characteristics common to its three ancestors, but also some features specific to each one. Given the very scarce circulation of the three images until recent times, this leads to conjecturing that the Chariot of the tarot “of Marseille” might have been originally created in Florence sometime between 1460 and 1473.
This paper deals with Marsilio Ficino's astrological conception of the pagan sibyls and its likel... more This paper deals with Marsilio Ficino's astrological conception of the pagan sibyls and its likely influence on Baccio Baldini's engravings from the 'Prophets and Sibyls' series and trump cards of the tarot of Marseille; it subsequently conjectures that the tarot of Marseille might have been conceived by Ficino as a pedagogical game to teach the Platonic philosophy.
For more than a century, scholars have debated over Marsilio Ficino’s revival of Plato’s academy ... more For more than a century, scholars have debated over Marsilio Ficino’s revival of Plato’s academy in fifteenth-century Florence. Was it merely symbolical or did it have some physical reality ? Through a textual investigation, this paper reaches the conclusion that the small farm of Careggi given to the translator of Hermes and Plato by Cosimo de’ Medici was indeed the place Ficino referred to as his little academy, a quiet retreat to live and study alone rather than a proper school or an institution as we tend to understand the term nowadays.
In chapter VII of his commentary on Plato's Phaedrus, published in 1496, the Florentine Marsilio ... more In chapter VII of his commentary on Plato's Phaedrus, published in 1496, the Florentine Marsilio Ficino gives a description of the chariot of the soul in which Plato's original image appears supplemented with additions borrowed from other Platonic dialogues, as well as from sources as diverse as Parmenides, Boethius, the Dominican Saint Antoninus and authors from the Cistercian tradition. This article proposes to reconstruct Ficino's vision of the chariot of the soul and, from there on, to highlight the role he assigns to this vehicle, as a model of the human soul, integrating its energies and faculties, and sign of its calling to be the instrument of the return to God.
Although Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation of the famous allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republ... more Although Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation of the famous allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic is faithful to the original text, another version found in one of his letters has strange discrepancies with the myth. The resulting image reveals Ficino’s interpretation of the cave as a representation of the physical world, in which those who allow themselves to be lured by material values are punished during their lifetime, as if they were prisoners in hell. Drawing on striking correspondences between this vision and two contemporary expressions of the underworld – a drawing by Botticelli illustrating Dante’s Inferno and the card of the Devil in the tarot of Marseilles – this article suggests that Ficino might have used visual devices to convey his most profound and somewhat unorthodox teachings.
More than five centuries after its creation, Botticelli’s Primavera still resisted all attempts a... more More than five centuries after its creation, Botticelli’s Primavera still resisted all attempts at interpreting it. Even though numerous studies had allowed identifying every single element of the composition – from the nine main characters to the smallest daisy – it remained, as a whole, an enigma. While integrating previous results, the present study adopts a new point of view: stepping a few steps backwards behind the spectator, the author reveals the role played in the composition by the observer himself. This unprecedented perspective provides the key to the relations between the characters and the painting appears as the staging of a double love story, lived at the heart of the Quattrocento by real protagonists: the lord of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici; his eternal love, the chaste Lucrezia; his ephemeral love, the so seducing Simonetta. In the background, stand out the figures of those who inspired the work or contributed to its making: the philosopher Marsilio Ficino; the learned Cristoforo Landino; the commissioner, Lorenzo the Magnificent; finally the artist, Sandro Botticelli. Thus is revealed the idea that the painting had been expressing ever since its creation by its very beauty: that physical and mortal beauty has no other function, in the divine plan, than to lead the souls to eternal and divine beauty.
Books by Christophe Poncet
Two Esoteric Tarots, 2023
A conversation between Peter Mark Adams and Christophe Poncet on the esoteric tarot, in relation ... more A conversation between Peter Mark Adams and Christophe Poncet on the esoteric tarot, in relation to the elite and Saturnian Sola-Busca tarocchi and the popular and luminous Tarot de Marseille. The two leading researchers into the hidden legacy of the tarot discuss the significance of their discoveries, which overturn the prevailing academic orthodoxy, and in doing so transform our understanding of the role of tarot in Western esotericism.
More than five centuries after its creation, Botticelli’s Primavera still resisted all attempts a... more More than five centuries after its creation, Botticelli’s Primavera still resisted all attempts at interpreting it. Even though numerous studies had allowed identifying every single element of the composition – from the nine main characters to the smallest daisy – it remained, as a whole, an enigma. While integrating previous results, the present study adopts a new point of view: stepping a few steps backwards behind the spectator, the author reveals the role played in the composition by the observer himself. This unprecedented perspective provides the key to the relations between the characters and the painting appears as the staging of a double love story, lived at the heart of the Quattrocento by real protagonists: the lord of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici; his eternal love, the chaste Lucrezia; his ephemeral love, the so seducing Simonetta. In the background, stand out the figures of those who inspired the work or contributed to its making: the philosopher Marsilio Ficino; the learned Cristoforo Landino; the commissioner, Lorenzo the Magnificent; finally the artist, Sandro Botticelli. Thus is revealed the idea that the painting had been expressing ever since its creation by its very beauty: that physical and mortal beauty has no other function, in the divine plan, than to lead the souls to eternal and divine beauty. The bilingual text, in French and Italian, is richly illustrated.
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Papers by Christophe Poncet
Books by Christophe Poncet