Customer Reviews

Tarot Art Nouveau (English and Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ran across pictures of this deck online, at www.aeclectictarot.net, and thought, "How lovely!" A week or so later, I remembered seeing it in some store quite a while ago and thinking, "How vapid." I was right on both counts; as other reviewers have noted, this deck is quite pretty. Also as they've noted, it's a little shallow in terms of symbology. Basically what you get are a lot of pretty watercolors of women, draped or partially draped in flowing dresses and other pieces of cloth, and not a lot of story. If you just look at the pictures, it's almost impossible to tell most of them apart.

I would not at all recommend this deck to an inexperienced reader. You pretty much have to know the cards well enough to read them without significant visual cues to stir your intuitions. I've been reading for ten years, so I'm fine with it, and I get some very insightful, enjoyable stuff out of it, but I'd never use it as a teaching deck.

A couple aspects of the art bother me. The placement of the women on the page is often very odd; many of them appear to be floating in space, seated on an invisible couch or leaning on invisible supports. Probably what happened was, the artist had models pose and chose not to draw whatever sticks of furniture they were posing on, but it makes for some disconcerting compositions. Additionally, the kings are all extremely Neptune-looking (which is fine with me) and all paired with a very young girl on the card in a position of powerlessness. It's unbalanced within the deck, because the queens certainly aren't ordering young pageboys around or bending them backwards over their laps. Additionally, I don't feel like the emotion there applies to all the kings, so it's just plain inaccurate.

Other cards are striking--Strength, for example, takes a very bold approach, with a man both riding and overpowering a male centaur. It's both elegant and very violent, and distinctive as can be. The woman on the five of Pentacles is seated, looking down introspectively at a daffodil she holds with a remarkable expression of hurt and disappointment; the impression is not one of starvation so much as rejection. It works, particularly in the romantic mood set by the entire deck.

I rate this deck so low only because I think that for the vast majority of Tarot students, it's going to be virtually inaccessible. If you want a beautiful deck with some more or less unorthodox interpretations, I'd recommend Hertz's Fantastical Tarot; if you're interested in historically-driven decks, the Scapini Medieval Tarot simply can't be beat. It's gorgeous, terrifically complex, and still a little quirky. If you're an adept enough reader that you can see cards in your head without even laying them out, though, and you'd like a deck with images that are sheer pleasure to look at, the flowing, elegant pastel work in the Art Nouveau Tarot will suit you well.

If you love the florid, elegant art styles of Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha, you will absolutely adore this classy Lo Scarabeo deck! All of the luscious human figures, fabrics, flowers and fauna flow and swirl effortlessly on all of its 78 pictures. This is an art deck in the truest sense of the word.

While the criticisms that this deck sometimes departs from traditional tarot symbolism are true, this 'flaw' does not handicap its use as a reliable reading tool. Should you sometimes find youselves tiring of the more 'traditional' decks' in-your-face symbolism, the Art Noveau will serve admirably as an alternative. Its trumps do not slap you with obscure or questionable assignations of planetary, astrological, elemental, Qabbalic symbols, nor do its pips adhere strictly to the Waite prototype. In fact, the ambiguity of the simple, elegant images allow you to rely more on your own intuitive abilities. This is a good outcome, imho.

This Art Noveau deck is destined for greatness and longevity.

The sheer beauty of this deck is amazing. At first it seems heavy on the female images, but then you realize how many males there are in the trumps and court cards and notice how the readings are very balanced .My readings from this are gentle yet so accurate and I often feel that the readings help to lead me to higher ground spiritually and seem to direct toards paths that are spiritually enlightening and rewarding. I completely and totally give my praise to this deck. It was one of my first and is my primary reading deck. I had no trouble with it in the beginning. It is very similar to the Rider-Waite and I sat down and studied the cards once a day and now and very familiar with them. I also studied the Rider Waite deck and it is amazing it's meanings and symbology incorporate so beautifully and smoothly into this deck's meanings and symbols. This decks cards are laden with symbology-and it is so beautifully rendered-the Death, Lovers, Sun, Empress, High Priestess, Temperance, Magician and Page of Chalices are just breathtaking. A truly wonderful deck.

I get the most incredibly subtle and insightful readings from this deck. All the artwork is exquisite and detailed, and the readings come through the same for me. A breathtaking deck and simply spellbinding to look at and use.

Upon first glance, this deck looks like one of the most beautiful ever published. The major trumps all are faithful to traditional design. The colors are pastel and very sping time like. Hence the name "printemps". This was my choice for romantic oriented readings.

It is when we pass into the minors that things fall apart rather fast. I do not know if it was deliberate or lost in translation but the meaning of most cards are switched beyond recognition.

A big NO NO in my book! I could see if there was a deliberate reason for this. The accompaning booklet lacks little explaination for these changes. There was no book to accompany deck. Until one is produced, the deck sits in my Tarot cabinet,gathering dust. Only getting it out to show others the beautiful art work.

I would not recommend this to beginners. Even advanced readers may have some trouble explaining the blatant changes to most of the minors. Believe me, this happened to me. A major trump only reading would be very good for affairs of the heart.

Lo Scarabeo has a reputation for publishing some of the most beautiful tarot decks in the world and the Tarot Art Nouveau deck is no exception. The art work on both the major and minor arcana is absolutely unparalleled. While most of Lo Scarabeo's cards are "traditional" pre-Waite decks with unillustrated minors, this deck is fully illustrated. My only criticism is that pictorial symbolism is lacking. This deck does not use traditional Waite iconography. The pictures on these cards have little if any association with their meaning, however their beauty far outweighs the lack of symbolism. A perfect deck for reading love and relationship spreads.

I was given this deck for Christmas this year. At first I was enchanted by the artwork. It is truly beautiful, filled with images of beautiful women in flowing gowns, gorgeous longhaired men, and lovey floral accents. But as I began working with them I became disappointed.

For those of us who read the tarot by the symbolism of the art more than the traditional meanings of the cards, this deck is almost useless. In the best decks, the meaning of the card is told as a story through the picture on the card. With this deck, except for a few exceptions, the pictures on minor arcana cards are almost entirely devoid of symbolism and meaning.

The court cards,in my opinion, are the most frustrating. Pages, which are intended to represent a male or female youth, and usually pictured as an androgynous youth, have been changed to Knaves and the drawings are of very muscular adult men. All of the Kings are pictured with submissive-looking young women kneeling at their feet. What is that meant to symbolize? The Queens and Knights are, of course, beautiful, but light on symbolic meaning.

The Major Arcana are the deck's strongest point. Although they aren't the best I've come across, they are fine for Major Arcana only readings. That's about all I'll be using them for.

I would be happy to put most of this artwork on my walls, but beauty alone is not enough for a good set of working tarot cards. These might work for those who read according to the traditional meanings and don't use the pictures, but for intuitive readers they're little more than eye candy. It's only because of the beautiful art that they get 3 stars, otherwise they'd be lucky to earn 1 star from me.

This deck drew me in by its stunning art. Now I own five beautiful tarot decks but this one just completely took me in. Now most decks to me either have beautiful eye candy art or great spiritual meanings. This one to me has both. I did readings for three of my friends and all of them said it was so very accurate. My only concern is that they don't give too many layouts for readings. A perfect deck for expirenced readers.

I knew when I saw this deck I had to get it. It may not be traditional but I like non Traditional and I have a had time doing a reading if I do not connect with the cards. These cards have subtle symbolism and is a great deck. It will be a different experience for different people.

The art is surely very very beautiful, but it can only suit taste for deck collectors.

The floral style make each card hard to differ from each other. In a large reading, it becomes so hard to read.