Michelino da Besozzo
- the most expensive artist of his time painted the first Tarot (Trionfi) deck
The first known Trionfi deck was done by the
cooperation of 3 persons: Marziano da Tortona, Michelino da Besozzo and
Filippo Maria Visconti.
Filippo Maria gave the money and the idea,
Marziano wrote an accompanying text book and probably coordinated the
work, Michelino painted.
Michelino da Besozzo
(ca. 1370 - ca. 1450) was occasionally called the
best artist of his time, so surely not a very cheap playing card painter.
Very good information about his life gives
Storia di Milano in Italian language. From the informations given Michelino was absent from Milano 1404 till 1417, so the deck was probably not painted before this time. As Marziano, who wrote the text-book, was surely alive in 1423 and was surely dead in 1425, the cards should have been done in this range of time.
Michelino worked on an
elogium for Giangalazzo
in 1403, also for a genealogy of the Visconti.
Probably this earlier commission had some influence on the
card-deck.
Pictures online:
Martiano da Tortona
- wrote the first Tarot book
Teacher of Filippo Visconti till 1412, later in a
dominant role participating in the administration. Possibly he also had
the function of an astrolog.