Simple yet ingenious, the hourglass was invented in the fourteenth century. The devices, which were cheaper than clocks and required no maintenance, were used to measure spans of time from a few minutes up to three hours. As grains of sand passed from one vial to the other, it was possible to see time slipping away. This Italian tarot card, from one of the most beautiful and complete fifteenth-century sets, shows Time personified as an elderly man. His white beard and stooped posture signal his venerable age, and his hourglass alludes to time’s passing.
[Bonifacio Bembo], Visconti-Sforza Tarot Card, Milan, Italy, ca. 1450–80, MS M.630.10. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1911.