Tarot's artistic journey from 15th-century Italy to modern divination

The Guardian reported this week on a new exhibition that traces tarot's unlikely artistic history, beginning with its emergence in 15th-century Italy as a card game before its transformation into a tool of divination and creative expression. The show charts the path from that early Italian origin through centuries of artistic reinterpretation, culminating in its modern association with mysticism and bohemian culture.

Among the figures central to tarot's artistic elevation was Pamela Colman Smith, an illustrator whose work on the cards won the admiration of photographer Alfred Stieglitz and brought her into the circle of William Butler Yeats. Her designs helped establish tarot as a vehicle for artistic vision rather than mere fortune-telling, demonstrating how a commercial product born in Renaissance workshops could become a canvas for serious creative practice.