Tarot Imagery

タロットの図像 / 15th century– / Style / Games and Play

From the Visconti gold grounds through Marseille woodcuts to the Waite-Smith narrative scenes: allegory systematized into 78 cards. Its openness to rereading keeps drawing designers in.

Tarot Imagery — Visconti-Sforza tarot, 15th century — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Visconti-Sforza tarot, 15th century — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Tarot Imagery — Same deck, Strength — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Same deck, Strength — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Tarot Imagery — Conver Tarot de Marseille, 1760 (CC0) — Conver Tarot de Marseille, 1760 (CC0) · CC0

At a glance

Visual cues

Major Arcana allegories
Standardized figures and attributes
Frame, number and title
Signs open to rereading

Best used for

Card-format teaching sets or decks where every card carries a meaning
Illustration series that show their system through number and title

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Dictionary entry

Type: Number above and title below, the formula unbroken across the deck
Composition: A full figure inside the frame, attributes held at one height
Material: Flat color from a short palette with a firm outline kept visible
Caution: Changing composition and palette card by card destroys the system, and the deck stops reading as one body when it is laid out.
Further study: the Visconti-Sforza deck / the Marseille woodcut lineage / Pamela Colman Smith's designs

Related entries

Playing Card Design (トランプの意匠)Same Games and Play lineage.Compare Tarot Imagery and Playing Card Design
Illuminated Manuscript (彩飾写本)Shared effects: Calm.Compare Tarot Imagery and Illuminated Manuscript

Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/tarot
Markdown: [Tarot Imagery — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/tarot)
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