Animal: A Beastly Compendium

the master of the Playing cards, cards with bear and lion suit symbols

by anonymous These 1435-45 playing cards are the first examples of engraving on metal to appear in Europe. The work of an anonymous artist based in the Upper Rhine Valley, they were intended for aristocratic clients who liked to see another of their favourite pastimes – the hunt – depicted on their playing cards. While the bears evoke a type of hunting practised during the Middle Ages, the lions reflect a remote,

imaginary realm.

Edited extract from Animal: A

Beastly Compendium by Rémi Mathis and Valérie Sueur-hermel. Published by Bloomsbury Visual

Arts. RRP £30 Treasures from the prints and photographs department at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France