Tarocchi Durer
by Giacinto Gaudenzi
 
Normally I believe homage decks come in two varities when you're talking about a deck paying homage to a famous artist: one, the deck contains parts of works of art by the artist being honored, such as the William Blake Tarot by Ed Buryn; and two, the deck is conceived and drawn utilising the style of the celebrated artist while being wholly an original work of its own.  This deck, the Durer Tarot, falls into the latter category.
 
The artist, Giacinto Gaudenzi, has also done a Celtic Tarots and the Tarots of the Golden Dawn, but you won't recognize his style based on the art in this deck.  Carefully rendered in sepia tone ink on ivory card stock, this monochromatic deck has 22 cards, Major Arcana only.  Drawn in the style of the famous engraver/artist Albrect Durer, the artwork has the look of heavily muscled people and strongly detailed figures and buildings that was common to Durer's work.  Many of the scenes are comical.  They depict people from various walks of life and are rather intuitive of the meaning of each card.
 
Since there are only the 22 Major Arcana, there are no suits or court cards.  The titles are traditional in the deck.  Order is also traditional; Justice is 8 and Strength 11.  The cards are bordered in the ivory color of the card stock, actually it's kind of hard to describe but it's more like the border is simply an area which isn't filled with image, not like a defined border itself.  The card titles appear underneath the image but in various places; sometimes it's on a rock at the bottom of the scene; other times, it's a small plaque or sign.  However they are portrayed, they blend into the scene in the card image nicely and subtly.
 
The cards themselves are larger than standard and printed on a thick, heavy, textured ivory card stock.  The edges are not perfectly even, giving something of a bookish feeling to them, and the corners are squared and sharp.  The deck is stiff to handle and you wouldn't want to try casino shuffling them cause I think the cards would crease rather than flex.  However, I suspect they are mostly bought as an art collectible and rarely used for actual divination.  The back design is amazing and intricately detailed, and not truly reversible, although the image is split in the center so half is always upright no matter which way you have the cards.  The images themselves are different at each end.
 
The little booklet which comes with this deck is a very good one, although it is all in Italian.  A good amount of it tells about how Gaudenzi's art training led him to study and produce the deck following Durer's art, but the descriptive meanings for each card are rather lengthy as well.  If you can read Italian, it may be useful.
 
I really like this deck, the more I look at it the more I enjoy it.  Gaudenzi is a tremendously skilled artist and every deck he creates brings me joy as a collector.  I highly recommend this to all deck collectors, you don't need to be familiar with Durer's work to enjoy this one, but if you are familiar with it, so much the better!  Email Wicce for information on buying this deck.
 
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Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace
 
Tarocchi Durer by Giacinto Gaudenzi, 1990
published by LoScarabeo, Torino, Italy