Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century depicted in painting as sinful, a step on the road to perdition, vulnerable to cheats and crooks, preserve of the reckless and despicable …

4. Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century depicted in painting as sinful, a step on the road to perdition,
vulnerable to cheats and crooks, preserve of the reckless and despicable …

5. Card Games
in European paintings

7. Bruegel's crowded and horrifying vision of the inevitability of death …
A dinner has been broken up by the intrusion of the army of Death
and the diners are putting up a futile resistance.
They have drawn their swords in order to fight the skeletons dressed in winding- sheets;
no less hopelessly, the jester takes refuge beneath the dinner table;
the backgammon board and the playing cards have been scattered
It is pointless to draw one's sword against Death or to hide from him under the table;
love songs are as useless as card games and earthly goods.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel l'Ancien
The Triumph of Death
Le Triomphe de la Mort
1562
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

10. For Hieronymus Bosch and his patrons, gambling was definitely one of the cardinal sins.
It appears in the garden of Hell in the right panel.
Here we find victims clustered around objects associated with the game.
There are playing cards scattered on the ground beneath an overturned gaming table,
dice balanced precariously on an index finger and on the head of a naked woman
a pair of non-human arms holding a backgammon board with three dice.
Hieronymus Bosch, Jérôme Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights, right panel, Hell
Le Jardin des délices, Panneau de droite, l'Enfer
1495-1505
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

15. A circular table with a print of fleurs-de-lys,
cards and piles of money,
the king of spades and the eight of spades,
two men and a woman
an allegory of love:
two men are rivals for the woman’s favours, the young man on the left
has the advantage with the king of spades in his hand
or
a secret political alliance at the highest level:
Charles V on the left, Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries,
and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, ambassador of Henry VIII of England
would be concluding a secret agreement between Spain and England
against Francis I of France.
Lucas van Leyden
The Card Players
Les joueurs de cartes
1520
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

18. A card game in an atmosphere of mistrust, lechery, and cheating ...
a man looks disapprovingly at the woman trying to read his cards,
a man gropes the seated woman looking at us
and
a bearded man looking inside his coat as to introduce a fraudulent card
to distort the game
Anonymous Artist, Artiste anonyme, Lucas van Leyden, after, après
The Card Players
Les joueurs de cartes
1550-1599
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

21. a well-heeled androgynous boy has been tricked into a game of cards
with a pair of crooks …
Caravaggio, Le Caravage
The Cardsharps
Les Tricheurs
1595
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

25. A dangerous combination of gambling, loose women, and alcohol ...
The victim, another androgynous boy, his eyes cast down
at his hand of cards, and a large pile of gold coins in front of him.
A dashing man glances sideways at the viewer,
an ace of diamonds hidden in his belt.
The courtesan in a low-cut dress, looks shiftily towards
the maidservant who has just filled her drink,
and
the maid looks sideways towards the victim, as if the two
of them are also conspiring to cheat him of some of those coins.
Georges de La Tour
Le Tricheur à l'as de carreau
The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds
1636
Musée du Louvre, Paris

30. A lady in a bright vermilion dress, shows her game ... she has all the aces!,
a man, his companion who brings him a glass of wine,
a man in black who will soon be plucked,
a couple having a conversation in front of the window
and
a boy in blue livery who watches the scene and learns about life ...
Pieter de Hooch
Card Players in a Rich Interior
Joueurs de cartes dans un riche intérieur
1663
Musée du Louvre, Paris

33. A raw and sinister scene of street life,
a moral admonition of the incaution and profligacy of youth ...
Rome in the seventeenth century,
a tavern or a dark alley,
a group of rough mercenary soldiers,
a finely dressed youth in a feathered cap examines his cards
and
a figure in the shadows behind him signals to his accomplice
the hand of the young dupe.
Valentin de Boulogne
Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (The Cheats)
Soldats jouant aux cartes et aux dés (Les Tricheurs)
1615
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

36. In this still-life the Five Senses are represented in the form of objects.
Hearing is clearly given a greater value than all the other senses.
The open hymn-book with the words of thanksgiving 'Laudate dominum’
forms a clear contrast to the reprehensible game of cards
and the empty purse beside it - two objects representing the sense of touch.
Jacques Linard
Les cinq sens au paysage
The Five Senses
1638
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg

39. The winged Genius holds a cameo with the portrait of Emperor Charles V, and
his right hand points to a globe, alluding to the world domination of the Casa de Austria,
skulls, a blown-out candle,
an hourglass , the line “Nil omne” – “All is nothing,
precious pieces of armour,
a firearm
a precious clock,
miniature portraits with a string of pearls,
a handful of coins,
playing cards
Time, happiness, wartime fame, beauty …
Antonio de Pereda
Allegory of Vanity
Allégorie de la Vanité
1632-1636
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

43. In a dark Roman inn ...
All manner of parasites from nocturnal life - card tricksters, palm-readers,
pickpockets, courtesans - have gathered here to steal two fashionable gulls …
one by a young courtesan who looks at his game and makes a sign
to a soldier accomplice, who has a card hidden,
while the other is fascinated by the "Egyptian" telling him the fortune.
Nicolas Régnier
Cardsharps and Fortune Teller
Tricheurs et diseuse de bonne aventure
1620-1622
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

47. A wonderfully intimate and contemplative painting...
It shows the boy in profile standing at a blue baize-covered gaming table.
Hair tied with a ribbon, he lines up a column of carefully folded cards.
On the table, some coins and the jack of hearts protrudes from the table drawer
The theme of constructing houses of cards has traditionally been associated
with the transience and vanity of human endeavor.
However, the latter detail suggests that Chardin is referring to deeper evils
associated with pleasure-seeking activities.
Jean Siméon Chardin
Le Château de cartes
The House of Cards
1737
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

51. The representation of cheating gamblers was not new - it appears in Italian and Spanish
baroque painting - but never before had it been depicted in the setting that Goya chooses here:
out in the open in the middle of the countryside ...
A group of Majos play cards in the country, under the shade of an awning hung in a tree.
Behind them, another Majo makes signs to his companion, helping him with the game.
Francisco de Goya
The Card Players
Les Joueurs de cartes
1777
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

54. Perhaps the roofed terrace of a café.
The bottle, with the light playing on it, forms the central axis of the composition.
It separates the space into two symmetrical areas, accentuating the opposition
of the players.
Paul Cézanne
Les Joueurs de cartes
The Card Players
1890-1895
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

57. Provençal peasants immersed in smoking their pipes and playing cards ...
three card players seated at a table, eyes cast downward, intent on the game,
one spectator
and
the four pipes hanging on the wall
Paul Cézanne
The Card Players
Les Joueurs de cartes
1890-1892
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City

60. A game of cards between French soldiers of the First World War,
who look more like robots than human beings ...
the soldiers with repeated profiles as an industrial production
are quasi-machines and the few identifiable attributes
(helmets, pipes, playing cards) are derisory
Fernand Léger
La Partie de cartes
Soldiers playing cards
1917
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

63. Three wounded World War One veterans playing cards on a table outside ...
The soldiers are extremely disfigured and have many implements
used to help the disabled.
The tube protruding from the right ear of the man on the left was a device that was
used to aid the hearing impaired in these days.
Two of the soldiers are fitted with prosthetic jaws.
The soldier on the right-hand side has a prosthetic jaw upon which Otto Dix inscribed,
“lower jaw prosthesis brand Dix,” along with a picture of a man that may
have been Dix himself.
The symbolism in his painting reflects the sordid state of affairs in Germany
and the painting is an example of the style of New Objectivity
Otto Dix
Skat Player
Les Joueurs de skat
1920
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

66. Card Games in European paintings
Jeux de cartes dans la peinture européenne
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