Description
Vievil Tarot / TSR017 / Digital Print
Number of Cards: 78
Card size: 13 x 7.2cm
Packaging: Handmade envelope with a 5-colour hand-painted design (verge paper 160gr)
First limited edition. Each deck is numbered from 1 to 400, and signed on an additional card.
Restoration of the Iaqves Vievil Tarot Trumps
To redraw the tarot of Iacqves Vievil, I referred to the only copy, preserved in the National Library of France (Paris).
My approach to tarot restoration is always to preserve as faithfully as possible the character of the original woodcuts. In my redrawing, I made the finest details clearly visible.
One of my personal goals, during the restoration process, has been to explore, via the stencil colouring phase, the richer colour palette that this tarot used to have and play with. When the light blue covers the yellow, for example, it creates a beautiful green, which is not visible on the historical deck anymore.
After redrawing Vievil’s triumphs, I discovered peculiar marks around each card’s frame. Investigating further, I found remnants of a border motif, likely removed due to deterioration by the cardmaker. Fascinated by this uniqueness, I aimed to recreate, as my very next project, the tarot with this motif, restoring lost originality. Such borders were initially added to make the cards resemble Italian ones.
Particularities of the Iaqves Vievil Tarot
This astonishingly creative tarot is a French ancestor of the so-called “Rouen-Bruxelles” tradition. It was manufactured around 1650 by the Parisian card maker Jacques Viéville.
The cards of this tarot are not named but a short prose can be read along the Ace of Coins and the 2 of Cups:
Ace of Coins: PERE SAINCT FAIT / MOY YUSTICE DE CE / VIELART MA E BAGA / AMOREVX DE / CESTE DAME QVY / SOIT CRYE A SON DE / TROMPE PAR TOVT / LE MONDE DE PAR / LE PAPE LA PAPESSE / L ANPEREVR L INPERATR / YCE LE SOLEIL
2 of Cups: LA LUNE LES ETOILLES / LA FOVDRE PRINS / A FORCE QVY SOIT / PENDV E TRANNAY / AV DIABLE
The stick of MA (the fool) is ended by the fool’s marotte.
The raised hand of I – BAGA (the Magician) seems to be a second left hand.
IVSTICE is numbered VII which makes PRINS (The Chariot) number VIII
Trump card XIII is named LAMORT, and has hair.
LA FOULDRE (the Tower) depicts a shepherd and his sheep
LES ETOILLES an astronomer,
LA LUNE, a woman spinning thread,
LE SOLEIL, a child on a horse.
Jacques Viéville, card maker in Paris.
Jacques Viéville was a Parisian card maker active during the mid-XVIIth century. Various official documents recorded his name and profession in 1643, 1648 and 1664.
His name abbreviated name, IAQVES VIEVIL is on the 2 of Coins.
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