The cards in the Tarot of the Masters deck were inspired by classic paintings by old masters, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, El Greco, and Rubens. According to Rachel Pollack: Not only does the choice of art wonderfully fit the Rider-Waite-Smith images we all know, James Ricklef has smartly decided to redraw them in his own hand rather than simply collage them. The result is a unified deck with wonderful colors and exciting scenes. Because the paintings are themselves so interesting they add extra layers of story -- and therefore meaning -- to the classic cards.