Peintures du Monde tarot?

Does anyone have the Peintures du Monde tarot? I'm a bit suspicious when people adopt well-known artworks for their tarot (Art of Life tarot was a disappointment for me). The very simple, borderless look of this deck is attractive, and the choice of art from the 17th and 18th century gives a certain coherence... although Rococo and Pre-Raphaelites have quite different agendas.

Kat Black's collaged art decks are great successes for me because the collage technique doesn't "nail" the association of ONE work to ONE card, it treats both art and tarot more freely, and I like that.

Decks that use one work of art per card can look great; the Infinite Visions and Delphic Tarot are interesting, but I didn't buy either. And now the Peintures du Monde tarot.

Thinking about it - the title is a bit grandiose. If you choose famous English and French paintings from the 18th and 19th century with a sprinkling of Italian and Flemish.... you can't really call that "Paintings of the world". That detail shouldn't influence readability, though.

What do you think?

Hmmm... yeah, I have to agree - I don't like decks that try to shoehorn pre-existing art as-is into a tarot deck. Some cards will inevitably work well, but 78 of them? I've yet to see one that succeeds at this.

And especially with such well known paintings - perhaps someone completely ignorant of the art history of these images might be able to read better and more intuitively with it, but I recognize way too many of them having studied so much art history in high school and university that I know the back-story and historical context and some just do not fit in that respect into the card's archetype they are supposed to portray...

It's ok, but I've seen these same images used across so many decks in this theme that would be nice to NOT have some of the obvious choices used

Yes, very true. Poor Circe ;-)

I am actually going to order this one soon. I love the images, and don't have an art history background so no preconceived notions about them, and think the deck looks lovely. I think I'll get the oracle as well. I love that it's borderless, and from what I have seen it looks like the creator put a lot of thought into image choices to match traditional meanings.

Nemia said:

Yes, very true. Poor Circe ;-)

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These are copyrighted and stolen images - unless the artist went to every museum and took the photos herself

" As it has been over 70 years since Waterhouse's death, Waterhouse's paintings are in the public domain. Reproduction rights are then concerned with rights held by those who have produced photographs of the works (in other words, if you took a snapshot of a public domain work yourself, you could do anything you want with it). Normally, museums have commissioned photographs of their works and thus hold the rights to these photographs to be used in reproduction."


And that is from just picture one...

nicky said:

These are copyrighted and stolen images - unless the artist went to every museum and took the photos herself

" As it has been over 70 years since Waterhouse's death, Waterhouse's paintings are in the public domain. Reproduction rights are then concerned with rights held by those who have produced photographs of the works (in other words, if you took a snapshot of a public domain work yourself, you could do anything you want with it). Normally, museums have commissioned photographs of their works and thus hold the rights to these photographs to be used in reproduction."


And that is from just picture one...

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Hmmmm, interesting. I've always been bothered by "public domain" decks which offer no changes to the work but just crop them to card size, as it seems like such a cheat (and often, money grab). So this is an interesting informational addition to the issue! Mahalo nui for sharing that Nicky!!

Stepping aside from the whole copyright issue, I just can't see classical artwork tarots afresh.

<Napoleon again> *waves*

The Delphic Tarot was a triumph for me. It does what this one does but it somehow works better for me. As Nemia says, it isn't collaged, but its unaltered use of what I call "certain corners" of masterpieces, is exquisitely tarot-y. The Delphic is it for me of this type. I cannot see these images (Narcissus, Circe, etc ) afresh. And there is renaming and the Fool just isn't the tarot Fool for me - not sure how that works - "gazing into space"? Perhaps. Not how I'd interpret that portrait to be honest.

What's my issue with these decks? I need to analyse why. Partly it's because I never go into art galleries and think of the images in a divination context. I find them so much bigger than purveyors of "divinatory meanings."

Le Fanu said:

Stepping aside from the whole copyright issue, I just can't see classical artwork tarots afresh.

<Napoleon again> *waves*

The Delphic Tarot was a triumph for me. It does what this one does but it somehow works better for me. As Nemia says, it isn't collaged, but its unaltered use of what I call "certain corners" of masterpieces, is exquisitely tarot-y. The Delphic is it for me of this type. I cannot see these images (Narcissus, Circe, etc ) afresh. And there is renaming and the Fool just isn't the tarot Fool for me - not sure how that works - "gazing into space"? Perhaps. Not how I'd interpret that portrait to be honest.

What's my issue with these decks? I need to analyse why. Partly it's because I never go into art galleries and think of the images in a divination context. I find them so much bigger than purveyors of "divinatory meanings."

Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with the Delphic so can't offer my opinion either way on it but other than that, ALL OF THIS.