The Tempérance is the fourteenth chart of the Tarot of Marseilles.

Iconographic study

In Greek old, grc sophrosyne , in Latin “ the temperancia ” is one of the four cardinal Virtues with prudence, force and Justice.

As Plato explains it in “ the Republic ”, it controls leaning it for the concupiscence; like Aristote in “Ethics with Nicomaque clarifies it”, the function of Temperance consists in moderating the sensual pleasures in agreement with the requirements of the “right reason”.

In the “Summa Theologiae - Question 2, Articulum 2”, Thomas d' Aquin written:

“Temperance implies moderation, which consists mainly in the moderation of passions which tend towards the goods of the directions - to knowing the concupiscence and the pleasures, indirectly controlling sadness and the sorrows deriving from the absence of these pleasures”. The person who moderates herself thus is consequently that which obliges to resist the attraction of passions and the pleasures, in particular of a sensual nature, when they become excessive. ”

In the old numeration of order of the Triumphs of the “Sermonize ludo” dating from the 16th century, Tempérance takes seat at the sides of the teaching Love as a virtue to moderate the heat of the instincts.

In the old Tarots, as on the Tarot of Visconti-Sforza or the Tarot known as of Charles VI, Tempérance is represented in its most common version: an young girl pouring the water of a container in another container of the wine - with the direction of attenuation, of softening of what is too exciting.

Expression of the need for dominating certain instincts, so that through this virtue, they balance.

An iconographic alternative of a completely exceptional interest is on the Tarot Alessandro Sforza: a nude woman sat on the back of a stag, her shoulders turned in direction of the head of the animal. Of its right hand, it makes fall water from a cut on its sex which it covers with its left hand. The cut is difficult to distinguish because it was engraved with the punch at the same time as of other decorative elements.

It is there a particular representation of Temperance - a fable in connection with antiques divinities being used as moral education, in agreement with the typical ethical praxis of the time.

It is from now on necessary to underline the function reserved for the divinities of Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in relation to the Christian allegories.

From this point of view, work of Jean Seznec is fundamental. In its study “the Survival of the ancient Gods” (1990) , it writes: " Thus mythology tends to becoming a Philosophia moralis : it is the title of a work of XIe century, allotted to Hildebert de Lavardin, bishop of Turns, who borrows a great number of examples from the pagan poets, just like to the Bible. It even tends to be reconciled with theology: allegorical genius of the Middle Ages, which, renewing the tradition of the Fathers, see in the characters and the episodes of the Fable, of the préfigurations of the Christian truth.

Indeed, as from the 12th century, where the allegory becomes the universal vehicle of any pious expression, mythological interpretation in this direction takes astonishing proportions.

It is time when Alexandre Neckham connects the Gods with the Virtues which, according to Augustin saint, lead the man per degrees to Christian wisdom; the time when Guillaume de Conches, commenting on the ' Consolation of Philosophy' of Boèce, interprets Eurydice like the innate concupiscence of the human heart, and giants like our bodies, composed of silt, which are raised against heart-Jupiter; time when Bernard of Chartres and his pupil, Jean de Salisbury, meditate on the pagan religion - " not by respect for its false divinities, but because they disguise secret lesson, inaccessible to the vulgaire". But especially it is time when the Métamorphoses of Ovide are exploited like a mine of saints vérités."

In agreement with the Christian direction, Temperance having for priority task to overcome the sensuality, the sexual pleasures, it is thus consequent that Chastity appears among its virtues.

In the “Gate vault” (1369) of the painter-sculptor Orcagna, the four virtues cardinal is represented, each one placed, according to the precepts of St Thomas d' Aquin, side by side with the associated virtues - in particular one sees there the virtues of Humility and Virginity connected to the cardinal virtue of Temperance.

The representation of Temperance on the chart of Alessandro Sforza is connected to the Greek myth of Artemis of the Roman Diane - allegory of moral teaching. The goddess, at the time of the return of Anathos, her annual appearance, one moment when it renewed its virginity while bathing in a crowned source, was observed and wished with concupiscence by Actéon. Furious, the goddess metamorphosed it in stag, an animal connected to her myth of goddess of hunting, named `elafebolos' , i.e. that which drives out the stag using arrows.

However, the deer was also perceived like an animal symbol of softness direction of moderation and was equipped with multiple prerogatives.

In the Bestiary Tuscan, “Libro sulla will natura degli animali” (Book on the nature of the animals), a test of medieval morals, the Christian is called, in a repetitive way, through convenient animalist examples, with the exercise of the virtues required by its profession of faith like to the constant practice of the confession and penitence. In this work, he is told how the deer was able to kill out of the snakes to eat them all while getting rid of the poison introduced by drinking water. From this control a precept of moral teaching is illustrated:

“Thus, the men must imitate it, getting rid of hatred, the lust, the rage, avarice while watering themselves with the source of Life - to knowing Christ” (Chapter XLVI).

In Roman mythology, Diane was always a virgin goddess: its immutable ritual is the gesture to take and pour water, element of regeneration and purification. It is for this reason, that in Rome, the Temples of the Vestals (virgin devoted) were located between emerging glazing bar near sources of rock escarpments. Diane supplements her ritual of purification, not to cool certain heats (indeed, the goddess is always virgin) but, because by pouring water on her “water” (its sex, like container connected to the liquids), it is in contact with energies of two water, renewing her virginal purity.

On the basis of description given in the myth, the representation assumes a moral value: with the image of the goddess overriding Actéon, symbol of temptation, while it returning moderated, in the same way the men must overcome and control the instincts, to remain in a state of chastity while being watered with the saving water of Temperance.

The position assumed by the goddess on the stag is not unusual in late medieval art. On a Venetian mortar of the XV E century, one finds, similarly, a fantastic animal which overlaps a boy [“NdT: in Italian: putto” ].

On the pseudo Tarots known as of Mantegna, a hermine appears with the feet of the young girl. Scraped in its test of iconology written, that to represent this virtue, “ it is possible to paint a hermine because she does not have any concern to be made as for her whiteness, similar to that of a pure person” 1613, p. 102

On the charts of Etteilla (Large Etteilla II), Temperance is reproduced under the features on the one hand, of an young girl who holds her hand a bit whose function obvious symbolic system consists with réfréner the heats on the other hand of an elephant - another symbol of chastity - as that can be seen on the figure representing Tempérance in the test of Scraped.

It is in the sense that he writes that:

“the image of the elephant is put for Temperance because, being accustomed to a certain amount of food, it will not pass in addition to this practice to nourish itself - not exceeding the usual portion” [ED 1613, p 297

Description and Symbolism

Temperance pours water in the vase - what symbolizes the communication of the knowledge and knowledge.