These cards are dated to 1465 A.D.
There is only very little known about this deck of cards;
Some attributes this deck of cards to a Andreas Mantegna (1431-1506);
Andrea Mantegna was a Renaissance artist living in Italy. He was a serious student of Roman archaeology, which some of his sketches show.
Since Andrea were a child, he was fortunate to be thought by some of his century great artists. At the age of eleven he was an apprentice of Francesco Squarcione (A Padovan-Italy, artist 1397 – 1468). It is probably through Francesco that Andrea became so fascinated by ancient Rome, Francesco was almost in love with ancient Rome. Andrea was only around 17 years old when he was called together with Nicoló Pizolo to work with a large artist group on decorating the Ovetari Chapel, Andrea Mantegna finished most of the work alone.
Kenneth Clark attributes the cards to a Parrasio Michele (Micheli);
I personally wonder why Kenneth Clark thinks the cards are attributed to Parrasio?..
The Tarocchi of Mantegna is divided into five groups, which some characterize as;
1) The Archetypal social stations of Humanity;
a) The Begger
b) The Servant
c) The Artisan or Craftsman
d) The Gentleman or Squire
e) The Knight
f) The Duke
g) The King
h) The Emperor
i) The Pope
