le pendu
In a recent "only ONE deck" thread, I chose the Jacques Vieville as the one deck I would keep if I could keep only one.
And that's a bit odd. I tend to love the TdM decks, and while the Vieville is obviously related in most of its cards to the TdM, there are also several cards that seem more related to the Bologna Tarot, and some of his design choices are just plain odd.
Take the Chariot, possibly the strangest image in the deck, for instance:
When I first saw this image, I thought.. wow.. those are sphinxs pulling the chariot! And then I thought.. nah.. those are probably horses. Then I noticed his Knights, like the Knight of Batons:
But wait a minute, Vieville OBVIOUSLY knew how to draw a horse.. so why did he choose what he did for the Chariot? This is 1650 remember, as far as I know, way before the connection of tarot to Egypt was discussed, and before any Egyptian craze. So maybe they aren't horses, and they aren't sphinxs, and they mean something else entirely. I don't know. But aren't they curious?
And what of the Knight? At first sight the Vieville cards can seem to be very crudely drawn, but a few minutes looking at the details, and the cards really come to life. Notice the feather in the hat of the Kinght, and on the head of the horse. We see traces of that sometimes in the TdM, but here they are clearly intended. Look at the spurs on his feet, the armor on his knee, the design on his clothes, the intricate work on the horse's gear. Notice the red spot where the feather is held to the horses cap, now look at the TdM.
Most of the cards are like this. The more you look, the more you see. Here's the Trumps online, but they are so small it is hard to make out just how beautiful these images really are, you can click on the images to get bigger versions.. but they still are too small to see all of the details:
http://membres.lycos.fr/tarobat/mesjeux/vieville/lagaleriedestriomphes.htm
I love that Vieville doesn't have titles on his cards, no distraction there. The numbers look added as an afterthought, I ignore them.
What's in the Hermit's hand? How cool is the Fool's backpack stick? Look at the top and bottom of Strength.. you can see to top of her hat, and her foot and the lion's tail! What a fantastic devil, and a beautiful Star, what is in the Popess's hand.. a book? Are you sure?
This deck is not commonly found everywhere.. Barnes and Noble probably won't have it in stock. But it is fairly easy to find at most good tarot retailers. No need to compete in heavy bidding wars on ebay for it..
I've noticed several other people mention this deck.. so What's so great about the Jacques Vieville Tarot? Let's enable a reasonably priced deck, that's still available, that's over 350 years old, (think about that.. Paris.. 1650.. and we can still buy this deck and have it to learn, play and read with!). Why do you like the Vieville? What features are intersting? What makes this such a great deck?
And that's a bit odd. I tend to love the TdM decks, and while the Vieville is obviously related in most of its cards to the TdM, there are also several cards that seem more related to the Bologna Tarot, and some of his design choices are just plain odd.
Take the Chariot, possibly the strangest image in the deck, for instance:
When I first saw this image, I thought.. wow.. those are sphinxs pulling the chariot! And then I thought.. nah.. those are probably horses. Then I noticed his Knights, like the Knight of Batons:
But wait a minute, Vieville OBVIOUSLY knew how to draw a horse.. so why did he choose what he did for the Chariot? This is 1650 remember, as far as I know, way before the connection of tarot to Egypt was discussed, and before any Egyptian craze. So maybe they aren't horses, and they aren't sphinxs, and they mean something else entirely. I don't know. But aren't they curious?
And what of the Knight? At first sight the Vieville cards can seem to be very crudely drawn, but a few minutes looking at the details, and the cards really come to life. Notice the feather in the hat of the Kinght, and on the head of the horse. We see traces of that sometimes in the TdM, but here they are clearly intended. Look at the spurs on his feet, the armor on his knee, the design on his clothes, the intricate work on the horse's gear. Notice the red spot where the feather is held to the horses cap, now look at the TdM.
Most of the cards are like this. The more you look, the more you see. Here's the Trumps online, but they are so small it is hard to make out just how beautiful these images really are, you can click on the images to get bigger versions.. but they still are too small to see all of the details:
http://membres.lycos.fr/tarobat/mesjeux/vieville/lagaleriedestriomphes.htm
I love that Vieville doesn't have titles on his cards, no distraction there. The numbers look added as an afterthought, I ignore them.
What's in the Hermit's hand? How cool is the Fool's backpack stick? Look at the top and bottom of Strength.. you can see to top of her hat, and her foot and the lion's tail! What a fantastic devil, and a beautiful Star, what is in the Popess's hand.. a book? Are you sure?
This deck is not commonly found everywhere.. Barnes and Noble probably won't have it in stock. But it is fairly easy to find at most good tarot retailers. No need to compete in heavy bidding wars on ebay for it..
I've noticed several other people mention this deck.. so What's so great about the Jacques Vieville Tarot? Let's enable a reasonably priced deck, that's still available, that's over 350 years old, (think about that.. Paris.. 1650.. and we can still buy this deck and have it to learn, play and read with!). Why do you like the Vieville? What features are intersting? What makes this such a great deck?