New Palladini

The New Palladini Tarot
David Palladini (U.S. Games systems, Inc, 1996)

Review
It's funny how your impressions change over time.

This is the second deck I ever bought, and frankly I wasn't very impressed. The line work is so blocky, the backgrounds are either half-finished or else missing altogether. And both of these points are true, but now I look again I realise the blocky, almost geometric line work has a pleasing Art Deco quality, and the missing backgrounds are great for emphasising shapes.

The imporant thing to remember about this deck is that it's the New Palladini. What might be termed the Old Palladini is the Aquarian deck, which has the same art but in a far more limited colour palette- as obvious from the card back. The New Palladini is the artist looking at the deck 25 years later, and not simply recolouring but refreshing and texturising the whole deck.

The Aquarian was a Rider-Waite derivative, and so the New Palladini is effectively the R-W's grandchild. As a result, new readers should have little trouble reading the deck, even if the Wands are renamed Rods.

There's obviously been a lot of time spent on this deck, and the artist has obviously enjoyed adding the veins in the marble or the folds of the fabrics. In these more crowded markets it may not be the most distinctive deck, but it's still a solid purchase.