Cruel Thing
78-card tarot with delicate art in strict black, white, red palette.
by Luciano Vecchio · Fournier · 2009
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The record
The Cruel Thing tarot is a 78 card deck drawn by Luciano Vecchio and published by Fournier. At 60 x 110mm it is slightly smaller than a standard tarot deck but nevertheless manages to contain a wealth of delicate art and symbolism. Drawn with a strict three colour palette of black, white and red and bearing titles in four different languages it follows the structure of a standard deck: 22 majors and four suits each with ten numbered cards and four courts. Justice is VIII, Strength is XI; XIII is unnamed and the Fool is unnumbered, the usual zero being replaced by a strange symbol that, with others, reappears upon other cards of the deck. The only curiosity in the titling is that the cards usually called page or knave are here, in their English translation, called Jacks, a name more often used in playing card terminology than in tarot. The backs are an abstract design of red upon black and bear in the centre the same symbol that is found upon the Fool. The images upon the faces of the cards are captured within delicate line borders that include a Gothic arch motif that encapsulates the number of the card for the majors and the pips, and in the courts holds the symbol of the suit mak
The cards
