Tarocchi Virtual Study Day Session 1

Beginning in 2021, conservators, conservation scientists, and curators from the Morgan Library & Museum, Yale University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Center for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage “La Venaria Reale” in Turin, the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan partnered for a collaborative research project that compared three of the oldest surviving sets of Tarocchi cards. The three sets of cards, known as the Visconti-Sforza deck, split between the Morgan and the Accademia Carrara, the Visconti di Modrone deck at Yale, and the Brera-Brambilla deck at the Pinacoteca di Brera, were made in the middle of the 15th century and have a rich color palette and intricately tooled gilded backgrounds. They have been the subject of endless fascination and many art historical studies but have never been the subject of an in-depth technical analysis. The study day aims to disseminate the findings of the technical analysis and compare the cards’ materials and techniques to better understand how they were created, to place them in the context of contemporary Northern Italian illumination, and to contribute to the ongoing conversation and body of research about their creation. Held Tuesday, June 21, 2022.