Wheel of Fortune ascent vs. descent

[Papageno]

left to right and vice versa.

The Visconti tarots and an painting of the Wheel of Fortune from the Hortus Deliciarum depict Fortune ascending from left and descending to the right.

https://www.themorgan.org/collection/ta ... of-fortune

https://yanchepcatholic.org/tag/hortus-deliciarum/

other TdM decks depict ascent and descent in the opposite direction...ascending from the right and descending to the left.

Can anybody explain this difference?

[Nemia]

Just speculating here. The examples you give are hand-painted, but at the time of the Visconti-Sforza at lest, there were already printed decks in circulation at the time, weren't there? Printing changes the sides. Copying drawings manually can also changes sides (you turn a page covered with charcoal and then press the image with a piece of bone, can't explain it in English!).

Some more examples: https://pre-gebelin.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... rtune.html

and sorry for the obvious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rota_Fortunae

It's an interesting question, I don't have time for it now (((( but hope I'll have time later!

[fire cat pickles]

Just speculating here. The examples you give are hand-painted, but at the time of the Visconti-Sforza at lest, there were already printed decks in circulation at the time, weren't there? Printing changes the sides. Copying drawings manually can also changes sides (you turn a page covered with charcoal and then press the image with a piece of bone, can't explain it in English!).

Some more examples: https://pre-gebelin.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... rtune.html

and sorry for the obvious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rota_Fortunae

It's an interesting question, I don't have time for it now (((( but hope I'll have time later!

Yes, I agree. I think it could be simply a situation where it's "copyist vs. woodblock-printing".

[dodalisque]

Just a random thought that the TdM Wheel usually appears to turn anti-clockwise, like the way the zodiac is presented in a horoscope, beginning with Ares and ending with Pisces, and on the World card: Taurus-Leo-Scorpio-Aquarius, the 4 fixed signs denoting the entire wheel of the zodiac. This would establish a strong connection between the Wheel and the World. A cartwheel, or chariot wheel, or car wheel turns anti-clockwise to drive the vehicle forward, though of course the Wheel of Fortune turns on a fixed spot like a water wheel used to turn the millstone for grinding grain. "The mills of God grind slowly yet they grind exceeding small" - Longfellow(?)

[testpattern]

The anticlockwise motion of la Rove in most TdM feels more dramatic in that it's a fall that goes against the way our eyes are trained to read. It feels more vertiginous, and out of control. If it went towards the right, it would feel more like it was going with the flow, along with the plan, as it were.