Studio Brief 1 - Tarot Card Research

Tarot cards were created in the mid-15th century, largely for card games and whimsy. Only in the late 18th Century did it begin to be used for divination. The cards can be traced back to Ancient Egypt and Kabbalah - perhaps these styles of illustration could be researched. Below are some types of Tarot that were prominent during the rise of Fado.

18th century Tiertarock

Salzburg veduta trumps c1840

Cego Trumps

Tarot Nouveau tumps c1910

Italo-Portuguese-suited tarot deck

'The Tarocco Siciliano is the only deck to use the so-called Portuguese suit system which uses Spanish pips but intersects them like Italian pips. Some of the trumps are different such as the lowest trump, Miseria (destitution). It omits the Two and Three of coins, and numerals one to four in clubs, swords and cups: it thus has 64 cards but the ace of coins is not used, being the bearer of the former stamp tax. The cards are quite small and not reversible.'

This could be interesting to research as it is a form of Tarot that is specific to Portugal, which is where Fado originates. It is particularly interesting that they are small and not reversible.

Tarocco Siciliano

Relevance to Project:

It would be interesting to create a Tarot deck using imagery relevant to that described in Fado songs, of loss and longing and the sea. It would of course be incredibly hard to create a full deck of considered designs, as they usually consist of 78 cards. If this Portuguese variant still uses 64. It was suggested in a crit that instead of making a full body, perhaps I could focus on several cards (perhaps around 10) and tell the story/fortune of a Portuguese sailor. This would allow far more time and consideration to be made over those select designs. It also means more research can be made into the 18th Fado and the kind of things Portuguese sailors were doing at this time.