Homage to Erté Tarot

Homage to Erté Tarot
Amerigo Folchi, 1987

This is a 78-card Tarot deck drawn by the Italian artist Amerigo Folchi. This deck was printed in 1987 as a limited edition of 1500 sets by Il Solleone. As usual, the printing quality by Solleone is excellent.

The deck is drawn entirely in a style reminiscent of Erté, the designer of extravagant costumes and stage sets during the early part of the 20th century. His actual Russian name was Romain de Tirtoff; the name Erté was coined from the pronunciation of his initials. He is probably best known in America for his long-standing career as illustrator for the covers of Harper‘s Bazaar Magazine, a relationship which spanned 22 years. His fashion illustrations and graphic design fall within the decorative style called Art Deco. Erté even designed a deck of cards, based upon the Verdi musical La Traviata and published by Sevenarts, London in 1982. A copy of that deck is housed in the Fournier Museum.

Erté’s flamboyant style is a perfect theme for Folchi, whose designs here are ornate and exceedingly intricate. Each of the 22 Trumps, for example, are given their own unique border. More intricate details can be seen in The High Priestess and The Fool, which show Folchi’s use of dashes, pointillism and finely drawn shapes such as leaves and circles to create the intricate textures. The colors are a nice compliment to the artwork, but are really secondary to the linear textures. These minute details can best be appreciated up close. But by taking a step back from the cards, we notice the larger geometric areas of rectangles, stripes and circles - features of the Art Deco style. This use of geometric shapes in the early 20th century was, in part, the response by graphic design to find an alternative to the organic forms of Art Nouveau.

Virtually every card in the deck is peopled with Erté-style women, including the four Kings, and The Lovers card which shows two women. A few exceptions to this are cards which show objects such as a piece of clothing. There is an amazing array of fashion design throughout the deck, some of which was taken from Folchi’s imagination and others were taken from Erté’s work.

There is little mystical symbolism here, but plenty of graphic and fashion design. The deck is truly a smorgasbord of decorative variety. And it is one more example of Folchi’s knack for finding interesting themes on which to base an imaginative tarot deck.

Review by Mark Filipas, 3/16/00