Hope, plate 39 from Genii and Virtues

Hope is part of a 50-card set known as the Tarocchi, which were not tarot cards but which probably served a didactic purpose as a memory game. The Tarocchi are sometimes found bound as books, reinforcing their educational purpose. The images on the cards illustrate hierarchies in society and philosophy and are divided among five ascending categories: Ranks and Conditions of Men, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Genii and Virtues, and Planets and Spheres. Hope and Faith, are consecutive prints in the sequence of virtues. Albrecht Dürer, among other Renaissance artists, drew copies after these very engravings.