Art in Playing Cards, page 2

ART IN PLAYING CARDS - page 2

Cards from the Arabic Mamluk pack (c.1520) have closely decorated, embroidered or ?enamelled? surfaces. Although the underlying design is very simple, a lot of artistic work has been applied to the card faces.

Pattern is not an essential thing, but an ornamentation of the surface. Occasionally, designs originating with one technique or medium were transposed into another. For example, point lace patterns might be transposed to embroidery, painting to engraving; sculpture might imitate metalwork or indeed architecture and then be transposed onto the flat surfaces of illuminated manuscripts or playing cards.