Bosch Tarot [Cards]

A. Atanassov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2000

Hieronymus Bosch's unusual vision of the 16th century provides the filter through which Atanassov worked to create the Bosch Tarot. The quaint, the puzzling, the mildly amusing, the simply absurd, and sometimes even the lovely go hand-in-hand with the rawest monstrosity and the most disturbingly grotesque images. All the cards are titled in Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Since 1987, Art Publisher Lo Scarabeo has published over 100 Tarot decks that have been acclaimed all over the world for originality and quality. Only the best Italian and International artists are selected for our new decks, and the result is that Lo Scarabeo's decks are all recognizable as an exceptional artistic value.

Tradition
One of Lo Scarabeo's goals is the preservation of traditional Tarot decks.

Development
New decks and ideas are continually gathered from all over the world. This allows Lo Scarabeo to produce some of the most innovative decks available today.

Quality
Lo Scarabeo is committed to ever increasing quality and beauty of their products.

Distribution
*Llewellyn is the exclusive distributor of Lo Scarabeo products in North America.

Product Details

• Cards
• Publisher: Lo Scarabeo; First edition (September 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738700126
• ISBN-13: 978-0738700120
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 2.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #932,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tarot of the Dark Side., October 16, 2001

By 

David Albert "doctordruidphd" (Pacific Northwest, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bosch Tarot (Cards)

If you ever wondered what Darth Vader's tarot deck looks like, this is pretty close. Drawing upon the artwork of Hieronymous Bosch, a Flemish painter who lived from about 1450 - 1510, the Bosch Tarot from Lo Scarabeo, via Llewellyn, offers a glimpse into a truly nightmare world. Considering the time in which Bosch lived, the artwork is futuristic, rivaling the best modern horror and fantasy work, if not surpassing it. There is some nudity, although it is not erotic. Some of the cards are truly beautiful, while others will take your breath away for other reasons. Here are plant, animal and human chimeras in abundance, inhabiting a world that is both twisted, and at the same time too close to reality for comfort. The real horror is that this is a world that almost could be, a mixture of post-nuclear holocaust and demonic possession.

The cards themselves are standard, being 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana, with the usual suits and court cards. The artwork is brightly colored against a black border that makes them almost glow; as with all Lo Scarabeo decks, the quality of the cards themselves is high. Names for the major arcana are given in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, with labels for the minor arcana indicating the rank of the court card and the name of the suit for the numbered cards. In many cases the artwork on the minor arcana cards is neither symbolic nor descriptive of the card's meaning, making many of the numbered cards little more than fancy pips. The little booklet that comes with the deck is a generic description of the Tarot and a list of standard meanings; it is not specific to this deck, giving nothing of its history or background. Perhaps that is, in this case, for the better.

In spite of the strangeness and frightfulness of many of its images, this deck has a place in the repertoire of serious Tarot students and readers. For those who interpret the Tarot in terms of psychology, here is every fear phantasm and paranoid complex that can be imagined, and then some. On a more spiritual level, the major arcana depict the same archetypes as the usual decks, only appearing in a strange and twisted world. A world, perhaps some might feel, that is really not all that different than the horrors of modern "civilization" depicted artistically. In terms of divination, as I said, this is a deck of what might happen and what the world could become, given certain trends in modern culture.

This is not a deck for the weak of heart or the weak of mind. Those who insist that the Oracle yield up sweetness and light at every turn should look elsewhere. It takes a certain amount of spiritual strength to confront the Dark Side, but those who fail to master the darkness -- metaphysically or psychologically -- will eventually find themselves mastered by it. One could think of this as a deck of the Otherworld, which Celtic lore teaches is not a world of punishment and suffering, but a world secrets, teachings and magic that is simply different from our own. In this context, it might well be the ideal deck for Samhain/Halloween readings. If you like art that shows how twisted the world might really be, and tarots that show how the future might turn out once the "blinken" are removed, you might enjoy -- in a fiendish sort of way -- this excellent and stunning set of images.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the art of H. Bosch, November 12, 2002

By 

"little_playa_goddess" (San Francisco Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosch Tarot (Cards)

Bosch was one of my earliest artistic influences (by the age of four, courtesy of my mother's Art History Textbooks, I was obsessed with Bosch). I was very excited to find out that a Bosch Tarot had been published in Europe by a major Tarot distributer (I even tried unsuccessfully to bribe friends planning to visit Europe to bring a set back to me in the states, upon discovering that it was not yet being distributed to the US Market).

Then, the deck became available in the US, and I immediately purchased it, and much to my dismay, the artwork was wrong.

It's very close, granted, but the redrawings of Bosch's work in colored pencil are not as gratifying as "the real thing" -- the medium used simply lacks the energy of oil paints. There are a number of cards I would have done differently, for example, the "Strength" card.

To it's merit, the symbology is very rich -- I wanted a deck that is primarily psychological, and it serves the purpose very well. I just wish that the art was done better.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art deck not for reading, February 24, 2007

By 

Leopold Bloom (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bosch Tarot (Cards)

Bosch, of course, never designed a Tarot deck, nor, we may safely assume, did he produce his paintings with the intention that they would someday be adapted into a deck, even though he may have been familiar with the Tarot decks extant at the time. This deck is a modern adaptation of Bosch's artwork, manipulated into the Tarot format.

Its success depends on how you intend to use it. Many of the figures, especially the Minor Arcana, seem arbitrary - an odd, disturbing monster carrying the requisite number of pip objects. I don't believe that all decks must be versions of the Rider-Waite, but if another image is used on a card, it should carry the same level of mystery and evocative power. Those qualities are not present in many of the cards in this deck.

For someone like myself who collects Tarot decks primarily for their artwork, and also has a fondness for Bosch, this deck is a fresh and delightful exploration of that artist's work. I can't recommend using it for any other purpose.