Published to accompany Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions, presented at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, this richly illustrated exhibition catalog explores more than six centuries of tarot’s artistic, cultural, and symbolic history.
Divided into two complementary sections, the publication begins with the earliest surviving Renaissance tarot decks commissioned by the Dukes of Milan during the fifteenth century. Essays examine the origins of tarot as a courtly game, the development of its rich visual language, and its transformation into one of history’s most enduring systems of symbolism and divination.
The second half follows tarot’s remarkable reinvention in the modern era through the influential 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck and its profound impact on twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists. The catalog explores how figures including André Breton, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Jess, Niki de Saint Phalle, Betye Saar, and Kerstin Brätsch embraced tarot imagery as a source of artistic experimentation, imagination, and spiritual inquiry.
Featuring an illustrated introduction, six scholarly essays, and twenty-two comparative plate spreads, the volume reveals how tarot has continually evolved while retaining its powerful visual vocabulary across centuries. Richly illustrated throughout, Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions is an essential resource for collectors, scholars, and readers interested in Renaissance art, symbolism, the history of tarot, and its continuing influence on modern and contemporary artistic practice.
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