From Touchstone TarotTM by Kat Black
Five of Wands
Meanings
Mock battles. Small obstacles and conflicts can serve to prepare us for more serious ones. Constructive debate, friendly rivalry, the challenge of a worthy competitor.
Reversed (?)
Dirty tactics. What started as a good natured debate could turn nasty. Some people aren’t playing fair. You may be shocked by a friend’s behavior.
Description
A finely dressed young man stands challengingly with his hands on his hips. He has a sprouting wand but does not participate in the mock battle of his more casually dressed companions behind. He looks like a young nobleman, they look more like soldiers off duty.
There is a red curtain, vaulted ceiling and stone steps; perhaps this is the hallway of a Manor. The young man has a lazy eye, perhaps the result of injury from a similar mock battle that got out of hand. It has not affected his confidence though; he holds his chin high and looks at us with an air of arrogance.
Artwork
- Wand: TIZIANO, Vecellio (Titian), St Christopher, 1524, Palazzo Ducale, Venice.
- Wand leaves: PONTORMO, Jacopo, Cosimo il Vecchio, c.1520, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
- Stair, fighters: TIZIANO, Vecellio (Titian), Crowning with Thorns, 1542, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Leg: BACKER, Jacob de, Garden of Eden, 1500s, Groeninge Museum, Bruges.
- Curtain: Master of Moulins, Anne de France, Wife of Pierre de Bourbon, 1498-99, Cathedral, Moulins.
- Young face: VOUET, Simon, Magdalene, 1614-15, Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome.
- Room, main young man: BRONZINO, Agnolo, Portrait of a Young Man, c.1540, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Look at that silk cotehardie. It's a shame men don't dress with such flair anymore.