Visconti-Sforza Tarot

One of the oldest surviving Tarot decks, created in the middle of the 15th century in Milan for the ruling Visconti and Sforza families. The cards are hand-painted and richly decorated with gold leaf — they were not playing cards but objects of luxury and status. Authorship is traditionally attributed to the court artist Bonifacio Bembo. The deck has come down to us incomplete: the best-known set (Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo) is missing several cards, including the Tower and the Devil, so the surviving Major Arcana are shown here. This deck is a priceless monument of early Tarot.