Pablo Robledo brings the soul of the cards back to life: the art of restoring ancient tarots.

In the sophisticated and demanding world of art restoration, few artisans are capable of combining historical fidelity, technical precision, and creative flair. Pablo Robledo has established himself today as a key figure in the highly specialized field of restoring ancient tarot cards, thanks to an approach as rigorous as it is innovative, appealing to both demanding collectors and lovers of divinatory symbolism.

The ancestral tradition of tarot: engraving and stenciling

Before understanding the uniqueness of Robledo's work, it is necessary to briefly recall the artisanal techniques by which the first tarots – particularly those known as "Marseille type" – were created. Produced from the 16th to the 18th century, these cards were first printed by woodcut: each blade was born from a hand-carved matrix, engraved line by line in the wood, with a vibrant plastic energy. Once the ink was printed on paper, the colors were applied manually using stencils, a technique allowing for a vivid but often rudimentary coloring, with superpositions and irregularities that gave these popular objects their charm.

The precision of a craftsman, the vision of an artist

Pablo Robledo is part of this legacy. On his YouTube channel, a virtual workshop, he reveals a restoration process that transcends simple reproduction: it is a work of respectful interpretation, based on a deep understanding of the hand and the intention of the original engraver.

In his line work, Robledo performs a subtle digital cleaning process, where each stroke is isolated, restored, and refined with extreme care. Far from artificial smoothing, this process preserves the irregularities, variations in thickness, and original textures of the engravings, revealing the lively trembling of the human hand that gives ancient games their aesthetic value. This fidelity to the spirit of the master engravers gives his restorations an almost archaeological quality, imbued with a profound respect for the history of the medium.

Colors: between tradition and South American brilliance

Once the lines have been cleaned and reinterpreted, Robledo begins a process of coloring that demonstrates a unique sensibility. Inspired by the stencil technique, he reproduces its effects while infusing them with a fresh, joyful, and often bold palette—an implicit homage to the vibrant colors of his South American culture. This intervention doesn't betray the original work; it revitalizes it. The maps, while remaining anchored in their historical context, acquire a new visual resonance, a contemporary energy that makes them come alive again, almost sing-song.

A work at the crossroads of worlds

What Pablo Robledo offers is neither pastiche nor simple reproduction: it is an artistic approach in the strongest sense. By recreating ancient tarots, he is engaged in a work of transmission. His work speaks to collectors, artists, and esoteric enthusiasts because it summons erudition, technical expertise, and a deep sensitivity to archetypes.

Each game he restores becomes a bridge between past and present, between Renaissance Europe and contemporary Latin America, between craftsmanship and digital modernity, between the rigor of art history and the intuition of the symbolic world.

Thus, tarots according to Pablo Robledo are not just objects: they are living works, where each line speaks of humanity, and each color of the soul.

These carefully restored treasures are now accessible to the public thanks to Kartograme, which offers exclusive, limited edition reproductions of several historical decks restored by Pablo Robledo. Each edition includes all 78 cards, printed to museum-quality standards, and comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Among the works available are masterpieces of fortune-telling heritage: the Tarot of Jean Dodal, the Flemish Tarot of Vandenborre, the Tarot of Besançon, the mysterious Tarot of Carrajat, as well as the rare Aluette deck, all visible by following this link