Art Nouveau Tarot Card Deck (English and Spanish Edition) (Cards)

~ Lo Scarabeo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

These cards are alive with movement-the delicate curves, the sweeping lines, the bright yet gentle color-all serve to draw the mind around and into the pictures. Taken together in a reading, these cards almost effortlessly weave a story. Taken individually, there is plenty for the eye to feast on. This deck, a work of art in itself, will also serve as a powerful divinatory tool.

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: Llewellyn Publications; Crds edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English, Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0738700088
• ISBN-13: 978-0738700083
• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 2.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #341,092 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, but short on meaning, October 14, 2002

By	Victoria Brockmeier "VB" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply beautiful!, August 8, 2002

By	JPH "jph_835" (Fremantle) - See all my reviews

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful, and Amazing Deck - Very Evocative and Accurate, February 13, 2004

By	Robert Lloyd III "hexerzie" (portsmouth, va United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.