Gioco di carte con nuovo forma di Tarocchini
- Gallery: Room 24
- Maker: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli
- Date: 1690-1718
- Object type: print, playing-card
- Materials: paper
- Museum number: 1852,0612.443
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
Before you is a single etched plate from a collection of playing-cards called "Gioco di carte con nuovo forma di Tarocchini." You'll see 10 cards illustrated with figures like Fame, Apollo, Death, and the Devil, blending allegory and classical mythology.
Each card is rich with symbolism and carefully designed, made using the etching technique on paper. This print comes from a series meant to be cut into a full deck of 62 tarot cards for the game of tarocchino. It highlights Giuseppe Maria Mitelli’s creative reinvention of the traditional Italian deck.
The cards were once arranged in six sheets like this one, and they included a special frontispiece dedicated to the Bentivoglio family—important patrons in Bologna. Even the artwork subtly includes this connection, with their coat of arms appearing in hidden details. Notably, the Ace of coins features Mitelli’s self-portrait, followed by scenes of music, dance, and hunting, giving a glimpse into his passions.
See it in person
Gioco di carte con nuovo forma di Tarocchini is on display in Room 24 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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