The Renaissance Origins of the Tarot (Part I)

Thoth Recording the Judgment of a Deceased Man's Soul,
Book of the Dead, papyrus, unidentified artist

Next: The Reimagining of the Tarot (Part II)

I recently visited the Morgan Library & Museum to see Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions (June 26 through October 4, 2026), an exhibition exploring the remarkable journey of the tarot from the princely courts of Renaissance Italy to its enduring place in modern art and popular culture. For someone who has long been fascinated by the imagery of tarot cards and has collected tarot decks over the years, it was an exhibition I could not miss.

The show begins in fifteenth-century northern Italy, where beautifully illuminated tarot decks were first created as luxury playing cards for noble families rather than as instruments of fortune-telling. Many scholars believe the imagery of these early decks drew inspiration from Francesco Petrarca's allegorical poem Triumphs, whose procession of symbolic figures was enormously influential during the Renaissance. Seeing the celebrated Visconti-Sforza Tarot cards reunited was a rare opportunity to appreciate them not as occult curiosities but as masterpieces of Renaissance craftsmanship, rich with Christian, classical, and courtly symbolism.

I first encountered tarot through popular culture rather than history. In my younger years, I dated several women who regularly read the cards, and I found the symbolism endlessly intriguing. The archetypal figures, mysterious imagery, and artistic traditions surrounding these decks possessed an undeniable imaginative appeal.

As a Catholic, however, my interest remains primarily artistic, historical, and symbolic. My understanding of tarot was later influenced by the writings of Valentin Tomberg, whose much-debated Meditations on the Tarot approaches the Major Arcana not as instruments of fortune-telling but as contemplative meditations upon Christian spirituality and the inner life. Tomberg’s work offers a perspective very different from the fortune-telling commonly associated with tarot today.

Whatever its later associations, I left the exhibition with a renewed appreciation for the artistic genius and cultural imagination that first gave tarot its enduring form.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli

(L-R) Death and The Hanged Man, Visconti-Sforza Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1456-58, tempera, gold and silver leaf on pasteboard, Bonifacio Bembo (1420-1480); Death, Visconti di Modrone Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1441-42, tempera and gold leaf on pasteboard, Andrea Bembo (act. 1431-1469)

Personification of Death and Christ Raising Lazarus "Farnese Hours,"
in Latin Italy, Rome, 1546, Giulio Clovio (1498-1578)

Palm-reading diagrams, The Art of Chiromancy (Die Kunst Chiromantia),
Augsburg: Jörg Schapf, ca. 1475, unidentified artist

(L-R) Queen of Swords, Fortitude, and Female Knight of Swords, Visconti di Modrone Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1441-42, tempera and gold leaf on pasteboard, Andrea Bembo (act. 1431-1469)

A King and Queen Playing Chess, Dirc van Delf, Table of Christian Faith (Tafel van den Kersten ghelave) in Dutch, Netherlands, perhaps Utrecht, ca. 1405-10, unidentified artist

St. Catherine of Alexandria, prayer book, in Latin, Italy,
Milan, ca. 1410-20, Michelino da Besozzo (act. 1388-1450)

(L-R) The King of Swords, Visconti-Sforza Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1456-58, tempera, gold and silver leaf on pasteboard, Bonifacio Bembo (1420-1480); King of Swords, Visconti di Modrone Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1441-42, tempera and gold leaf on pasteboard, Andrea Bembo (act. 1431-1469); Page of Swords, Visconti-Sforza Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1456-58, tempera, gold and silver leaf on pasteboard, Bonifacio Bembo (1420-1480)

The Planet Jupiter in Domicile and Detriment, Abū Maʿshar, Introduction to Astrology (Liber astrologiae), in Latin, Flanders, Bruges, ca. 1403, unidentified artist

Emperor Tiberius, Suetonius, Lives of the Emperors, in Latin,
Italy, Milan, 1433, Master of the Vitae Imperatorum

(L-R) Tarot de Marseille, Avignon: Jean-Pierre Payen, ca. 1760(?), unidentified artist; Madonna of Humility, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1430, tempera, oil, and gold leaf on panel, attributed to Stefano da Verona (ca. 1374-after 1438); and Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck, London: William Rider & Son, ca. 1921-92, Pamela Colman Smith (2878-1951)

The Chess Players, Italy, Siena, ca. 1475, tempera on panel,
Liberale da Verona (ca. 1445-1529)

(L-R) Page of Cups, Visconti di Modrone Tarot, Italy, Lombardy, ca. 1441-42, tempera and gold leaf on pasteboard, Andrea Bembo (act. 1431-1469); Queen of Horns, unidentified artist, Cloisters Playing Cards, Southern Netherlands, ca. 1475-80, pen and ink, opaque paint, glazes, and applied silver and gold on paper; The Sun, attributed to Franco dei Russi (act. 1453-1482), Visconti-Sforza Tarot (replacement cards) Italy, Ferrara(?), ca. 1465-70, tempera and gold leaf on pasteboard

Devil, Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (Divina commedia),
in Italian, Italy, Florence, ca. 1345-55, unidentified artist

Zodiac diagram, Johannes de Sacrobosco, On the Sphere of the World (De sphaera), in German, Austria, ca. 1425, unidentified artist

(L-R) Astrology (Astrologia), Music (Musicha), Saturn (Saturno),"Mantegna Tarot," Northern Italy, Ferrara or Venice, ca. 1462-67 - Engravings, Master of the E-Series Tarocchi (Lazzaro Bastiani[?])

A Palm Reader, Bartolomeo "Cocles" della Rocca, Complexion: How to Learn the Nature and Character of Each Person... (Complexion: Natür und Eigenschafft eines yeden Menschen zü erfaren...) Mainz: Peter Jordan, 1534, unidentified artist

Three water-birds and a falcon, from a model book, Italy, ca. 1425-50, pen and brown ink and wash, over black chalk, on paper, Workshop of Pisanello (ca. 1395-1455)

(L-R) Triumph of Love, from the Triumphs of Petrarch series, Italy, Florence, ca. 1480-1500, engraving, Francesco Rosselli (1448-before 1513); Wheel of Fortune (Rota della fortuna), Italy, Naples (?), ca. 1510, Luca Gaurico (ca. 1475-1558); and Game box, France or Netherlands, fifteenth-sixteenth century, bone, gilding, and paint over a wooden core, unidentified artist

Game box, France or Netherlands, fifteenth-sixteenth century, bone, gilding, and paint over a wooden core, unidentified artist

Coffer, Italy, Siena(?), early fifteenth century, poplar
with gilded and painted gesso and pastiglia decoration