What Kind Of Art Are Tarot Cards?

Tarot card art is a collection of timeless, mystical wisdom that has evolved over time. It often incorporates elements from astrology, alchemy, and Kabbalah, as well as non-traditional themes like cats, vampires, or fairy tales. Tarot card design shares similarities with older art styles, such as art deco and Western European block prints. Artists throughout the 20th century have used tarot cards in their creative practices, finding them a playful and useful muse.

In this post, we will examine the fundamentals of tarot card art design, including the role of symbolism, the history of tarot card design, and the necessity of composition in producing aesthetically pleasing images. New York-based artist Tattfoo Tan created his New Earth Resiliency Oracle Cards as part of his New Earth project, an immersive, teaching-based work that instructs users in both practical and spiritual aspects.

While many styles of tarot art exist, the meaning behind key imagery remains the same. Artists use a range of techniques to create these unique styles, such as woodblock printing or etching. The Major Arcana, based on Tarot de Marseille drawings, was rendered in an illustrative Art Nouveau style rich with patterns. Triangular arrangements are particularly prevalent in classic tarot decks and vintage comics, dealing with energies of change and relationship.

Art-styled Tarot cards and decks inspired by known artists or artistic styles, such as Salvador Dali, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruegel, Giotto, or Bosch, are also popular. While many styles of tarot art exist, the meaning behind the key imagery remains the same.

Is tarot Art Nouveau?

The Tarot Art Nouveau deck, inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, features elegant, flowery, and ornate colored ink drawings on cards. The deck focuses on people, with soft, spring-like colors inset into a white border. The main title in Italian is purple, while other language titles are pink. The people are mostly young and attractive, with occasional muscular men and pale, bare-breasted women. The art relies on nuance and conveys meaning through the expression and position of the human figure and face, rather than traditional tarot symbols.

Major arcana meanings are divinatory keywords, with the Moon representing visions, imagination travel, melancholy, and attraction for the unknown, and the World representing perfection, full result, achievement, and reward.

What style of art is on tarot cards?

Smith was an accomplished artist and championed by Alfred Stieglitz, who collected and showcased her work at his gallery. She created fully-realized illustrations of all 78 cards in the Thoth deck, making it a treasure-trove for cartomancers. The Major Arcana cards, based on Tarot de Marseille drawings, were rendered in an illustrative Art Nouveau style rich with patterns. The Minor Arcana cards, traditionally analogous to modern playing cards, were not elaborately illustrated. The Fool, for example, looked debonaire, wearing a floral tunic straight out of William Morris’s workshop. Smith’s occult bonafides and artistic abilities made her a valuable asset to the Thoth deck.

Who did the art for tarot cards?

Pamela Colman Smith, also known as “Pixie”, was a renowned British artist, illustrator, writer, publisher, and occultist. She is best known for her illustrations of the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which became the standard among tarot card readers and remains the most widely used today. Smith also illustrated over 20 books, wrote two collections of Jamaican folklore, edited two magazines, and ran the Green Sheaf Press, a small press focused on women writers.

Born in London, Smith was the only child of a merchant from Brooklyn, New York, and his wife Corinne Colman. They moved to Jamaica when Charles Smith took a job with the West India Improvement Company in 1889. By 1893, Smith moved to Brooklyn and enrolled at the Pratt Institute, where she studied art under Arthur Wesley Dow. Her mature drawing style reflects the visionary qualities of fin-de-siècle Symbolism and the Romanticism of the preceding Arts and Crafts movement.

Smith’s mother died in Jamaica in 1896, and she was ill on and off during this time. She left Pratt in 1897 without a degree. Smith became an illustrator, with her first projects including The Illustrated Verses of William Butler Yeats, a book on actress Dame Ellen Terry by Bram Stoker, and two of her own books, Widdicombe Fair and Fair Vanity.

Who designs tarot cards?

Pamela Colman Smith, also known as “Pixie”, was a renowned British artist, illustrator, writer, publisher, and occultist. She is best known for her illustrations of the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which became the standard among tarot card readers and remains the most widely used today. Smith also illustrated over 20 books, wrote two collections of Jamaican folklore, edited two magazines, and ran the Green Sheaf Press, a small press focused on women writers.

Born in London, Smith was the only child of a merchant from Brooklyn, New York, and his wife Corinne Colman. They moved to Jamaica when Charles Smith took a job with the West India Improvement Company in 1889. By 1893, Smith moved to Brooklyn and enrolled at the Pratt Institute, where she studied art under Arthur Wesley Dow. Her mature drawing style reflects the visionary qualities of fin-de-siècle Symbolism and the Romanticism of the preceding Arts and Crafts movement.

Smith’s mother died in Jamaica in 1896, and she was ill on and off during this time. She left Pratt in 1897 without a degree. Smith became an illustrator, with her first projects including The Illustrated Verses of William Butler Yeats, a book on actress Dame Ellen Terry by Bram Stoker, and two of her own books, Widdicombe Fair and Fair Vanity.

Who did the art for Tarot cards?

Pamela Colman Smith, also known as “Pixie”, was a renowned British artist, illustrator, writer, publisher, and occultist. She is best known for her illustrations of the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which became the standard among tarot card readers and remains the most widely used today. Smith also illustrated over 20 books, wrote two collections of Jamaican folklore, edited two magazines, and ran the Green Sheaf Press, a small press focused on women writers.

Born in London, Smith was the only child of a merchant from Brooklyn, New York, and his wife Corinne Colman. They moved to Jamaica when Charles Smith took a job with the West India Improvement Company in 1889. By 1893, Smith moved to Brooklyn and enrolled at the Pratt Institute, where she studied art under Arthur Wesley Dow. Her mature drawing style reflects the visionary qualities of fin-de-siècle Symbolism and the Romanticism of the preceding Arts and Crafts movement.

Smith’s mother died in Jamaica in 1896, and she was ill on and off during this time. She left Pratt in 1897 without a degree. Smith became an illustrator, with her first projects including The Illustrated Verses of William Butler Yeats, a book on actress Dame Ellen Terry by Bram Stoker, and two of her own books, Widdicombe Fair and Fair Vanity.

Did Dali design tarot cards?

Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist tarot deck, inspired by his wife and muse, Gala, was created in 1984 as a limited art edition. Taschen has now reproduced the full deck, along with a tarot how-to guide by German author Johannes Fiebig. The cards, with their pictorial enigmas and allusions, present a mirror, revealing the Magician and the original. The deck functions as a looking glass into one’s past, present, and future, reflecting on Dalí’s design, art-historical influences, and the mystical meaning behind these cards. The origin story remains a mystery, but Taschen has released the full deck in time for Halloween.

What is a tarot card design?

Tarot cards, similar to common playing cards, have four suits that vary by region: French in western, central, and eastern Europe, and Latin in southern Europe. Each suit has 14 cards, including ten pip cards and four face cards. The tarot also has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. The Fool may act as the top trump or be played to avoid following suit.

The use of tarot playing cards was once widespread across Europe except the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. However, they experienced a renaissance in some countries and regions, such as French Tarot, which gained popularity in the 1950s and became the second most popular card game in France. Tarock games like Königrufen have experienced significant growth in Austria, with international tournaments held with other nations, including Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Denmark remains the only Scandinavian country that still plays tarot games, with Danish Tarok being a derivative of historical German Grosstarock. The game of Cego has grown in popularity in the south German region of Baden. Italy continues to play regionally popular games with distinctive Tarot packs, such as Ottocento in Bologna and Sicilian Tarocchi in parts of Sicily. Troccas and Troggu are still played locally in parts of Switzerland.

What is the art of tarot reading called?

Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy where practitioners use tarot cards to gain insight into the past, present, or future. A traditional tarot deck consists of 78 cards, divided into the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. French-suited playing cards and any card system with suits assigned to identifiable elements can also be used. The first written references to tarot packs occurred between 1440 and 1450 in northern Italy, where additional cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the common four-suit pack.

These new packs were called carte da trionfi, triumph packs, and the additional cards known simply as trionfi, which became “trumps” in English. References to tarot triumphs continue throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but there are no indications that the cards were used for anything but games. It was only in the 1780s, when fortune-telling with regular playing cards had been well established for at least two decades, that anyone began to use the tarot pack for cartomancy.

What culture is tarot from?

Tarot cards originated in Europe during the mid-15th century, with the earliest known decks being created in Italy for a game called tarocchi. These decks, like the Visconti-Sforza deck, were hand-painted and commissioned by wealthy families as symbols of their status. The Major Arcana, consisting of 22 cards, represents life lessons, spiritual themes, and archetypal energies, with each card having its own unique symbolism.

The Minor Arcana, consisting of four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) corresponds to the elements of fire, water, air, and earth, focusing on everyday matters, personal experiences, and challenges and opportunities encountered in life.

What do you call a person who use tarot cards?

A tarot reader is an individual who employs a combination of divination and prognostication to ascertain future events.

What religion uses tarot?

This literature review examines the relationship between Tarot cards and New Age religion, emphasizing their function in the contemporary study of the New Age movement.