This major new volume explores the origins of Tarot in Renaissance Italy and its contemporary relevance as an enduring source of inspiration for modern artists.
An illustrated Introduction plus six other richly-illustrated essays explore the long, rich history of Tarot, the origins of the cards, their iconography, the idea of personal engagement in fortune and divination, as well as the highly personal aspects in much of the imagery. A main plates section features twenty spreads of tarot cards, some comparing the same character or virtue cards across each of three Renaissance decks, or in some spreads comparing Renaissance and Modern Tarot imagery.
Through its presentation of valuable new information and context on how Tarot has developed, evolved, and been reimagined by artists, mystics, and writers over the centuries, from its origins as a fifteenth-century card game in Renaissance Italy to its profound transformations into tools for divination, artistic creation, and storytelling, this new volume fills a very real – and timely – gap in the currently available published material on the history and artistic development of Tarot, its symbolism, and its source of inspiration for contemporary artists.
Director's Foreword by Colin B. Bailey
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Claire Gilman, Joshua O'Driscoll, and Francisco H. Trujillo
The Visconti and Sforza Tarot Cards: Courtly Art in Lombardy on the Threshold
of the Renaissance by Anna Delle Foglie
The Making and Materials of Renaissance Tarot Decks by Francisco H. Trujillo,
Marie-France Lemay, and Lydia Aikenhead. With scientific discussions by Elena
Basso, Silvia Centeno, Clara Granzotto, Richard Hark, Federica Pozzi, Roxanne
Radpour, Marcie Wiggins
Did They Really Play Tarot? by Thierry Depaulis
Tarot's Fate: Traditions of Divination in the Renaissance and Beyond by
Joshua O''Driscoll
The Tarot and the Occult Revival in Britain by Susan L. Aberth
Tarot Now by Claire Gilman
Plates
Exhibition Checklist
Bibliography
Chart of Extant Historical Decks
Image Credits
Claire Gilman is Acquavella Curator and Department Head, Modern and Contemporary Drawings, the Morgan Library & Museum, New York.
Joshua ODriscoll is Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, the Morgan Library & Museum.
Francisco H. Trujillo is Drue Heinz Book Conservator in the Thaw Conservation Center, the Morgan Library & Museum.
