Stylogeny combining Literatura de Cordel Woodcut × Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

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Style combination · Contrasts

Literatura de Cordel Woodcut × Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Both cut stiff figures in wood with no perspective or modelling, but the cordel cover is printed in black only, with solid blacks and gouged white lines, above a plain letterpress title, while the tarot card colours an outline key through stencils and cuts its numeral and title into the same block; choose cordel for a stark one-colour cover, tarot for a coloured emblem in a numbered set.

From the research on Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Mix them and make something Literatura de Cordel Woodcut Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

A woodcut-style poster shows a barefoot person in a red dress raising both hands toward a large yellow sun with a human face, flanked by flowering cacti. Floral side borders and black stars surround the scene, with “LUZ NOVA” printed in a yellow panel at the bottom.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the recipe below, and checked against it: the type from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards, the form from Literatura de Cordel Woodcut, the composition from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards. Not a real or historical work.

01

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Literatura de Cordel Woodcut Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Type from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards
Colour from Literatura de Cordel Woodcut

Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards avoids monochrome: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

Form from Literatura de Cordel Woodcut
Composition from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards
Surface from Literatura de Cordel Woodcut

02

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Ours

Cinzel, standing in for Roman capitals cut into the woodblock with the picture, in a band at the foot of each trump and court card, often with interpuncts and the copyists' spellings ('LE CHARIOR' and 'LA PANCES' on Dodal's cards, 'LE BATELEVR' with V for U)

Text · Literatura de Cordel Woodcut

The cover art of Brazil's literatura de cordel, pocket chapbooks of verse whose single picture is a small woodcut cut in soft umburana wood and printed in black above a plain letterpress title. Woodcuts displaced worn zinc clichés of film-star photographs from the 1940s, led by José Bernardo da Silva's Tipografia São Francisco in Juazeiro do Norte. From the 1960s collectors and galleries turned the blocks into standalone prints by masters such as J. Borges.

Libre Caslon Text; Literatura de Cordel Woodcut used Jobbing letterpress types from the print shop's case, for titles and verse and Lettering carved into the woodblock

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Literatura de Cordel Woodcut, with a counter-accent from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Literatura de Cordel Woodcut Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

  • #ece4cf ground · 36%
  • #141414 ink · 14%
  • #e8c95a accent · 18%
  • #b33a2e accent · 14%
  • #d98a9e accent · 10%
  • #7fae8a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ece4cf;
  --ink: #141414;
  --accent-1: #e8c95a;
  --accent-2: #b33a2e;
  --accent-3: #d98a9e;
  --accent-4: #7fae8a;
  --font-display: "Cinzel", serif;
  --font-text: "Libre Caslon Text", serif;
}

Use it with care

Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards: Trace decks cut before 1800 (Noblet, Dodal and Conver in the BnF; Dodal cards and early 19th-century Conver printings at the Met) rather than recent redrawings such as Grimaud's 1930 'Ancien Tarot de Marseille' or the 1998 Camoin–Jodorowsky restoration, which are modern works; and do not present the occultists' story of an Egyptian origin, launched by Court de Gébelin in 1781, as history: the pattern descends from Milanese tarot and was made for the card game of tarot, which French and Swiss players used it for until the early 20th century.

04

The two styles

A black woodcut-style illustration on cream paper shows a singing bird in a leafy tree with a heart on its trunk, a seated person in a brimmed hat, and a dog looking upward. Cacti, hills, a small house, and a sun fill the background beneath the title, with a triangular border and star motifs framing the cover. 1940–present · Latin America & Caribbean Literatura de Cordel Woodcut The cover art of Brazil's literatura de cordel, pocket chapbooks of verse whose single picture is a small woodcut cut in soft umburana wood and printed in black above a plain letterpress title. Woodcuts displaced worn zinc clichés of film-star photographs from the 1940s, led by José Bernardo da Silva's Tipografia São Francisco in Juazeiro do Norte. From the 1960s collectors and galleries turned the blocks into standalone prints by masters such as J. Borges. A crowned, robed figure holds a star-topped staff and rests one hand on a blue orb bearing a yellow star. Flowers flank the figure within a distressed black border, with “GUIDANCE” printed below. 1639–present · Western Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards The standard pattern of French tarot cards, descended from Milanese tarot and recut by card-makers in Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Dijon and Marseille from the 17th century. Each of the 78 cards holds one emblematic subject, a stiff figure or small frozen group, or a set of suit signs, inside a ruled frame, cut in wood with thick contours and sparse hatching and stencil-coloured in a few flat colours, chiefly red, yellow, blue, green and flesh (with violet in the 17th century); trumps add a roman numeral above and a carved title below. Occultists read it as a book of symbols from 1781.

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More combinations

With Literatura de Cordel Woodcut

All 10 combinations with Literatura de Cordel Woodcut

With Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

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