A little interesting description, if you have time for it…

Actually, I had no intention to make playing cards by selecting from the works of Albrecht Dürer, rather I wanted to select items from the “Master of the E- and S-series-Tarocchi”. I thought these extremely refined engravings were fascinating, however, they were too specific to associate these images with playing cards for tarot meaning too. These are not just playing cards, but cards with tarot meanings attached to them.

I realized that Dürer also saw these pictures, moreover, he had even drawn them into his portfolio. He also made the wooden engravings selected by me for the cards in this period. This was the sequence of events I got to Dürer, in the woodcuts of whom I found extremely exciting details. I was inspired by the beauty and the world of design that were hidden in these details.

“I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men.” –  Albrecht Dürer

Behind Albrecht Dürer Woodcuts

“No single man can be taken as a model for a perfect figure, for no man lives on earth who is endowed with the whole of beauty.”  – Albrecht Dürer

The details that can be seen on the cards are the original works of Dürer. I did not modify them. I have not touched on Dürer’s lines anywhere. It has just some retouching because of the paper errors. During this process, you have to think a bit like a woodcut graphic artist and a pixelartist :).

Thanks to the high-resolution details, I could work with Dürer’s artworks.  I used the same magnification for the purpose of the uniformity of the thickness of the lines.

The details appearing on the cards were selected and composed with great care. Therefore, each card suit design is an independent composition and an independent story. When one views a Dürer exhibition, there is no time for pondering on the details. For this purpose, I selected the most exciting scenes for the deck of cards.

“What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things.” – Albrecht Dürer

COPYRIGHT of the images: I used Albrecht Dürer woodcuts from The National Gallery of Art CCO-public domain. The copyright of the images settled: “This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.” – NGA. Thank you for making this possible!