The Tarot des Ambiguïtés by Alejandro R Rozan is an original deck intended to pay homage to the French Tarot de Marseille. This deck is the result of several years of studying the history and the pictorial style of the Tarot de Marseille pattern. It is influenced by various tarots of this pattern, taking as its main graphic reference perhaps the most famous of all, the celebrated Nicolas Conver Tarot. Alejandro used the images of this deck as a template to create new artwork, so the Tarot des Ambiguïtés images would all have the same proportions and measurements of the Nicolas Conver images.
The Tarot des Ambiguïtés also has the not-so-noticeable pictorial influence of other tarot belonging to this pattern. This includes details and characteristics from the Jean Noblet and Jean Dodal decks and slight influences from the Pierre Madenié, Jean-Pierre Payen, and Claude Burdel decks. The Tarot des Ambiguïtés is also influenced by one of Alejandro’s favorite decks, the Jacques Vièville Tarot, which is a contemporary of the Tarot de Marseille.
To create the Tarot des Ambiguïtés, Alejandro used a fountain pen to hand draw the lines of the illustrations to imitate the effect of the woodcut printing technique originally used for mass printing these historic decks. He then colored the illustrations using Photoshop with a color palette taken from samples of various Tarot de Marseille decks. Thanks to digital technology, he was able to mimic the stencil coloring technique, which was used at the time to color the cards.
The inconsistencies in both the linework and coloration of the illustrations are not mistakes. Alejandro selected the most prominent characteristics from various Tarot de Marseille decks and meticulously recreated them. This gives the Tarot des Ambiguïtés a vintage-facsimile vibe similar to other Tarot de Marseille decks. He also chose the most original symbols from these historic illustrations and incorporated them to create a deck that has a great symbolic richness that is in tune with the Tarot de Marseille canon.
However, the Tarot des Ambiguïtés should not be viewed as a Frankenstein composed of different pieces of Tarot de Marseille decks. It is a deck with ingenuity, a deck that tells a new story; its own story. The Tarot des Ambiguïtés respects the inherent narrative in each of the 78 cards, but gives it a different and sometimes radical twist to generate an original tale. These reimagined symbols and characters will lead you to create new interpretations of these classic images. The Tarot des Ambiguïtés was created to refresh your imagination and revitalize your readings.
