Juliet and Romeo Tarot

Juliet and Romeo Tarot
Luigi Scapini, 1990

This deck is titled ‘Tarocchi di Giulietta e Romeo’ or Tarot of Romeo and Juliet, though it is sometimes referred to as the ‘Shakespeare Tarot’. (This is not the Ashcroft-Nowicki deck titled ‘The Shakespearean Tarot’.) Despite its Italian name, this deck illustrates a fair variety of Shakespearean scenes and characters, not just those from Romeo and Juliet.

We first note that these cards are larger than most (8.5 x 15 cm, nearly 3.5 x 6"), allowing greater room for Scapini’s detailed paintings. His style is reminiscent of early Renaissance decks such as the Visconti-Sforza Tarot, with its jewel-like colors and patterned backgrounds. Gold and silver metallic inks were incorporated into the backgrounds as well as into the foreground highlights, simulating the flavor of expensive medieval decks. The borders, numerals and titles were all painted rather then typeset, helping to give the deck a handmade look.

Scapini’s knowledge as an art history professor is reflected in his deck, and in addition to its references to Shakespearean literature we find allusions to historical events, renowned personages, and famous works of art.

The Magician (shown above) is William Shakespeare himself, holding “the strings of Romeo’s and Juliet’s lives, who are about to act out their own script in a puppet Theatre of the World, a Lilliputian Globe. But it’s uncertain whether the theatre is a miniature, or the puppeteer a mighty giant.” The stage is a replica of The Globe Theater, with its audience watching from beneath the magician’s three-legged stool. The kabbalistic Tree of Life can be seen in the background.

Several cards in the deck depict real individuals. The Popess is represented by Mary Stuart, The Emperor by Albert I of the Hapsburgs, and The Pope by Boniface VIII. The Empress (shown above) shows Queen Elizabeth Tudor in her prime, clothed in her coronation gown. Before her is a field of wild oats, beside her are white lilies, and above her a trellis of Tudor roses. Scapini notes that although she was maternally fruitless, she symbolizes “Astrea,Oriana, the spirit of an age of gold, intelligence fecund and fecundating.”

The Hanged Man (shown above) portrays Hamlet, whose face is Scapini’s own self-portrait. To help him keep balance, the skull of Yorick hangs from his right foot. Beneath him is Ophelia’s floating body, surrounded by wildflowers: “Rosemary for remembrance, pansy for thought, crow flowers, nettles, daisies and violets”. The image of Ophelia is derived from the Pre-Raphealite painting by Sir John Everett Millais.

The Hermit (shown above) depicts Friar Lawrence from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He is gardener, alchemist, and the confessor to the young Veronese lovers. In the background rises Purga del Velo, a mountain which was visible to Scapini during his own childhood in Verona. The herbs being harvested by the friar include celandine, poppy, foxglove, hellebore, stramonium, hemlock, and deadly nightshade, all of which are native to this region of Italy.

The Wheel of Fortune (shown above) refers to King Lear, who can be seen in his triumph at the wheel’s summit and also in his impoverishment below, crawling on hands and knees upon sheets of ice. The figures on each side depict the shifting fortunes of Goneril and Regan, and “the only fixed axe of the Wheel of Fortune is Cordelia’s pure heart.” The edge of the wheel is engraved with the twelve zodiacal symbols.

Standing before the Three of Cups are the Chantilly Graces, an allusion to the painting by Raphael. Renaissance artists usually depicted the Graces as young women, as goddesses of love and beauty; here they are depicted as little girls. Their overflowing cups are decorated with grapes (symbolizing Plenty), palm leaves (symbolizing Truth) and foxglove (symbolizing Healing).

The deck comes with a wonderful booklet written by Scapini. He comments on each card’s artistic and literary symbolism, although technically no divinatory meanings are given. Both his text and images are quite suggestive. We might, for example, interpret the Three of Cups as Chastity, Beauty and Love, or as the fulfillment of desire.

The Queen of Swords is played by Lady Macbeth, a choice which suggests ambition, control, and cold calculation. Her image here was inspired by J.P.Sargent’s 1888 painting of the Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry. The women in the background are the three hags of the moor, the witches who played a part in Macbeth’s downfall.

Petruchio is shown as The Knight of Coins, as he comes to woo Katharina in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. He was dressed by the playwright in “a new hat and old jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword taken out of the town armory, with a broken hilt, and chapless”. His gift is a coin from Carrara, and the city of Padua can be seen behind him.

The Seven of Coins (shown above) illustrates the Piazza Erbe in Verona, a place where merchants would gather in Scapini’s younger days. The Chamber of Commerce is shown on the left, beneath the overshadowing influence of the planet Saturn. The three coins above are a denaro piccolo of Cangrande, an aquilino of Vincenza, and a mediatino; below are a soldo and a grosso, both showing Saint Zeno, and two quatrino coins showing ladders. This entire suit illustrates a variety of coins, which are usually identified in Scapini’s text but not always symbolically explained.

Of special note is the Ace of Coins, which is Scapini’s homage to the publisher of his deck, Teodoro Dal Negro. Teodoro is dressed as a Cavalivere of the 1300s, with the Ace from Dal Negro’s Trevisane deck shown on the front of his costume. The large coin, with its shield and four suit symbols, is the publisher’s own emblem. The red gnome symbolizes the suit of Wands, the baby Melusina represents the suit of Cups, and Teodoro—in his knightly armor—stands for the suit of Swords.

A few of the Sword cards in this deck show actual historical events. On the Seven of Swords we see the holy Roman Emperor Henry VII meeting a Jewish deputy, an event commemorated in The Bilderchronik der Landeshauptarkiv in Koblenz. Scapini’s booklet suggests that the message here is related to the subtle, conflicted influence which Hebrew culture had upon Europe in the Middle Ages; that influence was often fought against by the dominant culture yet still had profound and fertile impact. That impact, says Scapini, can be seen in the works of Pico della Mirandola, Rabbi Loew, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein.

The King of Wands depicts Othello. At his feet is perched a black raven who offers counsel, and the closed book held by the winged lion above warns of diplomacy refused; both go unnoticed for the white silken handkerchief held by the king. The image suggests the overpowering nature of passion.

We should close with Scapini’s own thoughts: “. . .it would seem to me that Shakespearean theatre contained the whole world of the tarot. Following this supposition—or if you wish, this personal intuition—I have tried to attribute to each of the 78 mysteries either a character or a situation in the theatre or world of Shakespeare. I have a clear preference—also because I am from Verona—for Romeo and Juliet. . . . I have kept in mind the ancient cards of the Veneto so as to create a pack with which the two lovers of Verona, between one amorous game and another, would not have thought beneath them to play with.”

Review by Mark Filipas, 3/1/02