Tarot of the Journey to the Orient
Marco Polo exploration themed with scenes, customs, dress of the Orient.
by Riccardo Minetti, Severino Baraldi · 2002
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The record
The Tarot of the Journey to the Orient, subtitled the Marco Polo Tarot, isn't meant to be a strictly real and historically accurate tarot deck. It instead describes 'scenes, custom, dress and rituals' in the flavour of Marco Polo's tales, who, as we all know, was an Italian explorer who returned home to his native Venice after 24 years of travels in the Orient and Asia. The majors of this tarot have the feeling of illustrations from a fable, one where the artist has never seen what has being described. Almost all the 22 cards have a dual scene on each card: one representing the East and one the West. Those cards lacking the dual scene instead show people with their counterpart from the each culture. It sounds a little clumsy but it isn't. The double scene is well-executed and appears natural, without being overly busy, That said, I am not keen on the facial artwork in some of the earlier majors. The Fool, Magician and the High Priestess look like Westerners wearing makeup (a la Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's). This did influence my initial impression a little negatively, as these as the first cards in the deck to be examined, but going through the rest of the cards restore
The cards
