Fortuny - Hardcover

Deschodt, Anne-Marie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810911337 ISBN 13: 9780810911338

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2001

Synopsis

The legendary textile and clothing designer Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949) was a leading artist of the Gilded Age. Living and working in Venice and Paris, he specialized in spectacular luxury fabrics based on Renaissance, Byzantine, and Art Nouveau patterns - double-cut velvets, hand-pleated silks, chiffons, and velvets printed with gold and ornamented with hand-beading. His most famous creations - still being handmade by the Fortuny design house - were the unique pleated-silk, Delphos dress, designed to cling sensuously to the body, and flowing scarves of the same material.
Fortuny belongs in the pantheon of Art Nouveau artists, together with Tiffany, Lalique, the pre-Raphaelite painters, and William Morris. He moved in the rarefied circles of prewar European aristocracy and his couture designs were celebrated by such writers as Marcel Proust and Gabriele D'Annunzio. Isadora Duncan and Eleanora Duse wore his dresses; Orson Welles made costumes from his textiles for the film Othello. Today, his work has influenced the fashion designers Mary McFadden, Issey Miyake, and others, and his originals are treasured by collectors.
But Fortuny was far more than a textile artist. He was also a celebrated designer of furnishings, theater sets, and costumes. His signature Oriental lamps of tasseled, printed silk are especially prized by interior decorators. He was also an accomplished painter in the style of Gustave Moreau and the Impressionists. This illustrated book offers a complete survey of Fortuny's life and work.

About this title

About the Author

Anne-Marie Deschodt is a freelance author living in Paris.
Doretta Davanzo Poli is curator of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Venice. A textile historian, she has written extensively on Venetian decorative arts and on the collections of Fortuny.

From Library Journal

Although Mariano Fortuny is primarily known for his sumptuous textiles and elegant fashions, he is regarded as an early 20th-century renaissance man equally skilled as a photographer, interior designer, furniture designer, painter, and inventor. As this volume illustrates, he was also fascinated with technology and theater and has been credited with numerous inventions, including the electrical dimmer switch an idea that grew out of his work in theater design and stage lighting. His name has been linked artistically to Gabriele D'Annunzio, Vaslav Nijinsky, Eleanora Duse, Ruth St. Denis, and Isadora Duncan. In his later years he designed costumes for Orson Welles's film Othello. Fortuny's lush textiles coupled with this book's lavish photography make for a visual treat. Unfortunately, the book is poorly indexed, and much of its material is already covered in Guillermo de Osma's Mariano Fortuny: His Life and Work (1980. o.p.). The Osma book is also much more comprehensive, and it contains informative lists of Fortuny's patents and of museums containing his work. Unless your library has absolutely nothing on this genius, consider this book an unnecessary purchase. Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0810911337
• ISBN 13: 9780810911338
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188