The history of Tarot is fascinating and there is a wealth of great artists over hundreds of years who have contributed to it.

The oldest surviving tarot cards are from the Italian Visconti-Sforza families’ collection of cards pieced together with odd cards from roughly 15 decks dated around 1428-1447.

Later that century, in 1491, the Sola-Busca tarot deck is widely thought to have been created by the Italian painter and printmaker Nicola di Maestro Antonio d’Ancona. This is significant because it is the earliest known full deck of 78 cards. It was also the first known deck to contain the format of 22 major arcana cards or ‘Triumphs’ as they were known at the time and 56 fully illustrated minor arcana cards or ‘suit cards’. Quite how much influence this deck would have on the world of Tarot unfortunately remained unknown to the artist for the remainder of his life. In fact, the Sola-Busca tarot deck with its format of 56 richly illustrated minor cards and 22 named and numbered major cards remained unique for over 400 years.

For hundreds of years tarot cards gained in popularity and spread across Europe with many different art styles. The cards became very popular as a game eventually becoming one of the most popular card games in Europe by the 18th century. Decks of note in this period include the Marseilles Tarot for which images were produced in the mid 17th century and attributed to the artist Jean Noblet of Paris. Another tarot deck of note from this period is the Lombardy Tarot created in 1810 by the Italian card maker F. Gumppenberg. The tarot cards in this period varied wildly in style and format. What these cards had in common though is that because their primary function was to be played as a game, the artwork was more simplistic- with rich illustrations and symbolism missing in the minor arcana.

In 1909 the scholar and mystic Arthur Edward Waite commissioned celebrated British artist and illustrator Pamela Colman-Smith to create the artwork for the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (commonly unfairly named the Rider-Waite Tarot). This changed Tarot forever. Smith and Waite seemed to be heavily inspired by the Sola Busca deck of 1491, creating another deck in the same format with all 78 cards being given deep meaning once again with full illustrations for every card. This deck has now become the gold standard for tarot cards with the majority of decks today using this format as the basis.

Tarot has now shifted into the pop-culture sphere with the help of contemporary artists such as Jamie Hewlett and Kim Krans.