In the Visconti Sforza Tarots love is represented by two young people during the ceremony of the “dextrarum iunctio”, that is the union of the right hand as a rite of indissoluble relationship between the two (figura 1). Cupid is over them, standing above a fountain, bandaged and provided with arrows. The same situation is developed under a curtain in the tarots of the same family in the series of Yale (figura 2) in which the presence of a little white dog is a symbol of fidelity.
The rite of the “dextrarum iunctio” broadly characterized the nuptial ceremonials of the high Roman class, in particular the senatorial one. In the bas-relief of the Sarcophagus of the Bridegrooms of a high Roman official (ca. 160-170 A.C.), at the Ducal Palace in Mantua (figura 3), the nuptial contract, that the bridegroom holds in his hand, is celebrated in the presence of Iuno Pronuba or Harmony, the personification of marriage, by the God of  marriage Hymen, who brings the nuptial torch, and by Peithô, the personification of the harmony of conjugal life and the good intentions of the couple. Behind the bridegroom there is the witness of the union.
The image of Cupid, the god of love, son of Aphrodite and Ares or  Hermes (according to others), had a huge spread Hellenistic iconography in art and the Renaissance inherited in equal measure. The iconological texts of the time interpret the childhood in connection with  the eternity of true love youth, as well as the insensitivity which is typical of children. Actually, God playing with men, hunt them, wounding them and fire them without realizing the harm that he can cause. His nakedness expresses the deprivation of all good that men collect from love: clothes, possessions, good sense, wisdom and blindness - is often depicted blindfolded - reveals his indifference to those who strikes the rich and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly, the young and old, all are submitted to him and his arrow strikes everyone without distinction. Also no one has shown more blind than he who is influenced by love.
A beautiful image of Cupid is constituted by the miniature that opens the Quadriregio by Federico Frezzi (ms. 989, University Library, Bologna, XV century), in which the identity Woman=Love=Cupid become explicit through the arrow thrown by the lover against the man (figura 4).
The effusions of the three couples present in the Tarots of Charles VI with two Cupids, that in this case are not bandaged (figura 5), bring us back to the Triumph of Love by Petrarca. The loving passion, driven by pure instinct, needs to appeal to Temperance, that virtue that precedes the card of Love in the Sermones de Ludo to suggest, to recommend and to make the good Christian reflect about the dangers of lasciviousness. St. Thomas writes in the Summa Theologiae: “Temperance that implicates moderation mainly consists in controlling passions that tend to material goods, which is to say lust and pleasures and indirectly to regulate sadness and pains that derive from the absence of these pleasures” (Quaestio 2, articulum 2). The temperate person is therefore the one who strives to resist the attraction of passions and pleasures, particularly to sensual ones, when they become excessive.
The representation of this triumph appears in the Rosenwald Cards with a rider knelt at the feet of the lady (figura 6) according to an iconographic model common in medieval and Renaissance art in reference to the concept of subjugation-devotion (figura 7 - Crusader in action of devotion, English Psalter, XII century, British Museum).
The iconography of this triumph didn’t undergo important changes until the Tarot of Marseille where we find a youth among two young girls, both with a loving attitude (figura 8). Here there is reference to the theme of  “Hercules in the dilemma between vice and virtue” that we find expressed in numerous figurative works of the time, as for instance in an incision of the School of Carracci where Hercules sits, leaning on his cudgel, and appears thoughtful in front of the offers of two young girls    (figura 9).
The woman on his right symbolizes Vice. Scantily dressed, she points out masks and cards set on a low table (to interpret as “shallowness”) with her hand, while a luxuriant fountain appears more in the distance. It is necessary to observe that the Christian teaching of the time through the illustration of this myth didn't exclusively stop at the choice between “castitas et lascivia” (chastity and lasciviousness), but it extended to everything that, giving pleasure, could upset the human mind leading it away on a wrong path. Among these pleasures were also those that derived from nature and its beauties. In the Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo (Representation of Soul and Body), translated in music by Emilio de' Cavalieri (ca. 1550-1602) the Soul duels with the Body with temptations by Pleasure.
Among the other verses that the Soul expresses in a moment of rest we find:  “Non vo’ più ber quest’acque, che la mia sete ardente s’infiamma maggiormente” (I will not drink these waters anymore that further inflame my ardent thirst). But now let’s come to the description that Pleasure, with two Companions, illustrates to the Body: “Chi gioia vuol, chi brama gustar spassi e piacere mentre il tempo lo chiama, venga, venga a godere, getti gli affanni suoi, corra a goder con noi. Gli augelli pargoletti cantan su gli arboscelli: i pesci semplicetti guizzano pei ruscelli, e invitano al piacere con numerose schiere. Ridono i prati erbosi, c’han colorito i manti; le selve, e i boschi ombrosi son lieti e festeggianti ogni piaggia fiorita al’allegrezza invita” Il Corpo: A questi suoni e canti, Alma muover mi sento come la foglia al vento”. L’Anima “Come ti cangi presto? Sta’ forte e non temere, quest’è falso piacere”. Il Piacere con i due compagni: “O canti, o risi, o graziosi amori, fresch’acque, prati molli, aure serene, grate armonie, che rallegrate i cori, conviti, pasti, e saporite cene, vesti leggiadre, e dilettosi odori, trionfi, e feste d’allegrezza piene, diletto, gusto, giubilo e piacere, beata l’alma, che vi può godere”. La risposta dell’Anima ribadisce ancora una volta il concetto della vanità di ogni piacere umano: “Non vi cred’io no, no, li vostri inganni io so: tutte le vostre cose che paion dilettose, al fin son tutte amare: beata l’alma, che ne sa mancare”. Il Piacere con i due compagni: “Cacciate via i pensieri torbidi, tristi, neri, aprite, aprite il petto al piacere, e al diletto, aprite, aprite il core a la gioia, e al’amore, dolce diletto, ch’allegra il petto, soave ardore, gioia del core”. L’ Anima: Via, via false sirene, di frodi e inganni piene. Il fin del vostro canto, occupa sempre il pianto: ogni diletto è breve. Ma quel ch’affliggerà, finir non deve”. Il Piacere con i due compagni: “ or poi che non v’aggrada la lieta compagnia,ce n’anderem per strada, dov’altri ci desia: che per aver contento, verranno a cento a cento” (Whoever looks for joy, whoever longs for amusement and pleasure whenever opportunity arises, come, come to enjoy, throw cares away, run to find delight with us! The young birds sing in the bushes, the simple fish dart in the streams, and invite you to enjoyment in all their many shoals. The grassy meadows smile bedecked with colour; the forests and shady woods are happy and rejoicing; every flowery slope invites to merriment”. Body: These sweet sounds and songs, Soul, have swayed me like a leaf in the wind”. Soul: “How can you be changed so easily? Stand firm, and fear not, this pleasure is unreal”. Pleasure, with two Companions: “O songs, o smiles, o sweet dalliance, cool streams, lush meadows, soft breezes, delightful music gladdening the heart, banquets, dinners and tasty dishes, pretty clothes and sweet perfumes, victory celebrations and gay festivities, delight, indulgence, mirth and pleasure, blessed he the soul that can enjoy you”). The answer of the Soul confirms once more the concept of the vanity of every human pleasure: “I do not believe you, I know your tricks: all the things you describe as delightful, prove bitter in the end. Blessed be soul who can do without them”. Pleasure, with two Companions: “Do away with all thoughts that are troubling, sad and gloomy. Open your heart to pleasure and delight, open your heart to happiness and love, to sweet delight that gladdens the heart, to voluptuous passion, the joy of the heart”. Soul: “Away, away, false sirens with your tricks and deceptions! Your song always ends with tears. Every pleasure is short, but that which distresses has no end”. Pleasure with two Companions: “Since you not appreciate jolly company, we’ll be on our way to a place where we are wanted: for to acquire happiness they will flock in their hundreds”).
Better to choose Virtue, represented in this incision by a woman completely dressed who points out a unicorn to the hero. Amongst others Venerable Beda (672-735) writes in his work In Psalmorum librum exegesis about the chastity of this animal: “In fact the unicorn is a chaste animal. For this reason, it not possible to capture it, if not thanks to the virgins, since it comes to them and sets its head in their womb and falls asleep" (Ps. 77; Patrologia Latina, 93, 909 Bs).
Its transfer to the Christological field (the assimilation of the unicorn in Christ) is testified in a considerable series of biblical footsteps brought in the versio BIs of the Latin Physiologist in chapter XVI: «So even our Lord Jesus Christ, spiritual unicorn (spiritualis unicornis), coming down in the uterus of the virgin, through the fresh flesh taken from her was captured by the Jews and he was condemned to die on the cross, he who until then had been with the Father invisible to us. Of which  David says: “He is beloved as the unicorn my child” (Psalm 28, 6). Again in another Psalm the same David says about himself: “My horn will be exalted as the unicorn” (Psalm 91, 11). Says Zachariah: “He has lifted up the horn of the salvation in the house of David, his servant” (Luke 1, 69). And in  Deuteronomy Jacob [he is Moses instead] blessing the tribe of Joseph: “His beauty as the first-born of the bull, the horns as the horns of the unicorn”(Deuteronomy 33, 17). The fact that it has only a horn on its head means what the Saviour says: “The Father and I we are the same thing” (John 10, 30). God is the head of Christ according to the apostle (The Corinthian 11, 3). The fact that he describes it as very fierce (acerrimum), means that neither principalities, neither powers, neither thrones, neither dominations could understand nor could hell succeeded in holding it back. It says small animal (pusillum animal), because of the humility of its incarnation, since he says: “Learn from me, since I am mild and humble of heart” (Matthew 11, 29). It is very fierce then (acerrimus), because even the bright devil could understand it or discover it by investigating, but only for the Father's will he came down in the uterus of the virgin Maria for our salvation: “and the Verb was made flesh lived among us”  (John 1,14). The fact that the unicorn is similar to a kidskin means, according to the Apostle, that also our Saviour, was made “in form similar to flesh, and with the sin he won the sin of the flesh” (Romans 8, 3). Good has been said about the unicorn, therefore».
In the quoted incision the animal is on the top of a mountain to underline that the way to reach perfection is not easy, but continuously sloping and therefore difficult. A concept that we have remarked on in reference to the card of the Hermit. John of the Cross writes in the Slope of the Mountain Carmelo (1579-1585): “The soul which wants to climb on the mountain of perfection to talk to God has to abdicate all the things and to leave them down below” (I, 5, 6).
Returning to the card of love and to its versions, we will find the two lovers again in the Tarot by Etteilla where the explicit writing Mariage clearly illustrates the situation (figura 10).