Barbieri

The record

Paolo Barbieri is an artist who specialises in cover-art for some of the most famous and prolific authors, with a focus on, but not limited to science fiction and fantasy writers. His fluid, almost seamless technique has been used in illustrations from myth and fantasy (including killer apes!), dragons and other mystical creatures, through to steampunk, alien landscapes, space travel, to traditional sword and sorcery. The Barbieri Tarot suffers from the usual problems associated with forcing an artist's broad body of work into the framework of traditional tarot – if it has not been created specifically as a tarot image it lacks symbolism and narrative. This can make it quite difficult to read the cards if there are no familiar reference points to work with, merely a collection of (rather beautiful) portraits and unrelated images.More than half this deck is ‘portrait’ images of one form or another. This is a 78 card tarot deck, with 56 Minor Arcana and 22 Major Arcana. The Major Arcana follows A E Waite’s titles and ordering standard to the letter. The suits are Chalices, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands. The Court cards are Knaves, Knights, Queens, and Kings. The Major Arcana is indica

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