Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards

001. The Juggler (Bagatto)
002. The Empress
003. The Popess
004. The Pope
005. Temperance
006. The Chariot
007. Love
008. Fortitude
009. The Wheel of Fortune
010. Time
011. The Hanged Man
012. Death (Skeleton)

The tarot deck was created in fifteenth-century Italy as a card game to be enjoyed by the aristocracy. It was not until centuries later that it became associated with occult secrets, divination, and the power of fate.

Such cards were hand-painted by some of the finest artists of the day. The tarot cards at the Morgan were probably created by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza family, and constitute one of the most complete decks to survive from the fifteenth century.