Full Description
This beautiful book presents valuable new information and context about 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.
An illustrated introduction plus six other richly illustrated essays explore the extensive history of tarot, the origins of the cards, their iconography, the idea of individual engagement in fortune and divination, as well as the highly personal aspects in much of the imagery. A main plates section features twenty-two spreads of tarot cards, comparing the same character or virtue cards across three Renaissance decks as well as the extraordinary range of imaginative tarot imagery.
Contents
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
