Was Pamela Coleman Smith’s Three of Cups Tarot Card Inspired By Botticelli’s Primavera?
Was Pamela Coleman Smith’s Three of Cups Tarot Card Inspired By Botticelli’s Primavera?
by William Van Horne, Ph.D.
Pamela Coleman Smith (1878-1951), the artist who created the iconic images for the Waite-Smith Tarot Deck published in 1909, was a trained artist who also worked in stage design. She was known to create paintings based on images she envisioned while listening to classical music. She also created illustrations of scenes in plays based on classical literature, such as her Dierdre, Act III in her magazine The Greensheaf in 1903. As a trained artist with interests in classical music and literature, she was also undoubtedly aware of many of the significant historical paintings of past master artists.
^Smith's Three of Cups Tarot Card.
The Three Graces, known originally from Greek mythology as the Charites, have been depicted in art since classical times as goddesses who personify beauty and grace. An ancient relief from the Greek island of Paros dated to 570-560 B.C. depicts them in a group with arms raised (see below)(1). In mythology, their major role seems to have been to attend to the Olympian gods during feasts, dances, and celebrations. Because of this, they eventually became a symbol of celebration in addition to beauty and grace.
^ Relief from Paros.
Numerous artists have depicted the Three Graces in paintings over the past several centuries. Pamela Coleman Smith was quite probably familiar with one or more of these depictions. One famous depiction of the Three Graces by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) in his painting Primavera may be especially significant as an influence for Smith’s Three of Cups illustration in the Waite-Smith tarot deck (2, 3).
In Primavera, Botticelli has rendered the Three Graces grouped together at the left of the painting (see below). Two of them have their arms raised in a fashion reminiscent of classical Greek depictions such as the relief at Paros. If the Three Graces from Primavera are compared side by side with Smith’s Three of Cups illustration there are striking similarities.
^ Primavera.
First, the general postures and positions of the Graces in Primavera and the women in the Three of Cups are very similar (see below). The central figure in both has their back to the viewer while the other two face mostly toward the viewer. The hairstyles of the women in the cups card are reminiscent of the hairstyles on the comparable figures in Primavera. Though the Graces in Primavera wear diaphanous dresses, they fall to their ankles, as do the dresses in the cups card. The composition of the cups card places the central cup at the apex of the image similar to the position of the two raised arms in Primavera. Interestingly, even the position of the feet of the central figure in the cups image, with the left heel raised, is similar to the central figure in Primavera with a raised right heel.
^ Detail of Smith's Three of Cups (left) & Botticelli's Primavera (right).
As a trained artist, it is quite plausible that Smith might have been inspired by depictions of the Three Graces when she illustrated the Three of Cups card. With so many similarities between the images she may have been specifically influenced by Primavera. However, the Three Graces were the subject of several paintings by various artists over the past several centuries, any of which she may have viewed. Of course, we’ll never know for certain if any of them was indeed the inspiration for Smith’s Three of Cups illustration. However, it makes one wonder, were illustrations on any of her other pip cards perhaps inspired by other artistic masterpieces?
