Mariano Fortuny, the Renaissance Man from Venice

I had read about Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949) before our trip to Venice. I was thrilled to be able to visit the Fortuny Museum, previously his home and studio, and to find a retail shop that sold some of his designs. There’s also a showroom at the Fortuny factory, but we didn’t make it there this trip. Next time.

Fortuny was one of those rare visionaries who was able to master whatever he set his mind to. Beginning as a painter, he was a photographer, engraver, furniture designer and opera set trendsetter. He was also home and theatre lighting innovator, printed fabric designer and manufacturer, an avantgarde fashion designer and a relentless inventor with dozens of patents to his name.

Although he was at the height of his fame during the 1920s and 1930s, much of his work is timeless and still available today. Fortuny fabrics, wallpapers, lamps and clothing articles are sold around the world, and mostly manufactured in and around Venice.

Throughout his life, Fortuny thought of himself as a painter. It’s easy to see why – he came from a family of painters. His great-grandfather, grandfather, father and uncle were all accomplished and recognized artists.

His father was also an assiduous collector of exotica including tapestries, fabrics, Japanese armour, weapons and ceramics. So, you could say that Fortuny’s future was predetermined.

Although Fortuny is strongly associated with Venice, he was born in Granada, Spain. His father died when he was three, after which his mother took him to live in Paris. However, when it became apparent that Fortuny was severely allergic to horses, they settled in Venice, the only place without horses and carriages. (Venice hasn’t changed in hundreds of years – transportation still consists of walking or boats.)

There, at the age of 18 he started as a painter and soon ventured into engraving and photography.

All of Fortuny’s work, whether it’s in paint, fabric or lighting, is about light. This made Venice the perfect place for him. The city is well-known for its shifting light effects.

On sunny days, there’s an effervescence in air, and the canal waters sparkle in shades of emerald and turquoise. The winter fogs bring on dramatic chiaroscuro effects, drawing a gauzy curtain over canals and palazzos, muting both colours and sounds.

Think of the city’s lighting, and then look at the shimmering tones of Fortuny’s velvet and silk dresses. Look at the light effects in his paintings and you can see the clear influences of his adopted city.

Even in his earliest childhood years, Fortuny was captivated by motifs and patterns. He studied the artwork from ancient Persia, Turkey, Greece, the Arabic world and pre-Columbian and Maori cultures. Add to that the natural exoticism of Venice – the numerous baroque churches and palazzos filled with paintings, frescos and wall hangings – and Fortuny had rich sources for his designs and concepts.

The German opera composer Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) spent two distinct periods of his life in Venice.

Fortuny not only enjoyed Wagner’s music, but was completely entranced by Wagner’s writings where he expounded on the concept of the “Gesamtkunstwerk”. This refers to the “total work of art” or the “synthesis of the arts”. In Wagner’s case, this meant controlling all aspects of the opera including the music, staging, sets, lighting right down to building the Festspielhaus Theater to his specifications in Bayreuth, Germany.

Fortuny took naturally to the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk. The fact that this concept was based on practices used in ancient Greece, perfectly suited his love of Greek culture and arts.

For example, as a painter he mixed his own pigments to get the exact colours he wanted. He decided he didn’t like the available easels, so designed his own on wheels, with an attached stool, presumably so he could easily move it around to take advantage of light coming in from various studio windows.

To achieve his fabric designs he first sketched out all the patterns, then carved his own blocks to print the textiles, did the initial printing, designed the dresses, cloaks and shawls and closely supervised their manufacture.

The Delphos gown, inspired by tunics from ancient Greek statuary, was introduced in 1907 and shocked the fashion world. At the time women were wearing highly constructed dresses, underpinned by girdles and other restrictive undergarments. In contrast, Fortuny’s softly pleated dress was a simple, body-hugging silk or velvet sheath in soft shimmering colours, meant to be worn without any underwear!

For this dress, Fortuny continuously experimented until he devised a secret method to create the hundreds of uneven, flowing pleats which involved heat, water, and a series of copper and porcelain tubes.

The dresses were held together and gently weighted down with Murano glass beads strung on silk cords along each side seam to maintain their body-hugging form.

The Delphos quickly became a hit with dancers, actresses and society women who enjoyed causing a sensation.

Eleanora Duse, Sarah Bernhardt and Isadora Duncan all embraced their free-flowing shapes, exotic patterns and colours. The art collector Peggy Guggenheim was often seen in Fortuny. Actress Lauren Bacall wore a vintage red Delphos to the 1978 Oscars, and writer and philosopher Susan Sontag was buried in one of her Fortuny dresses in 2004.

Today, Delphos dresses are highly collectable, with examples in good condition trading hands between $10,000 and $30,000.

The 13th-century Palazzo Fortuny was his home, laboratory and for a time, his factory. He lived here with his wife, muse and collaborator Henriette Negrin. You’ll see her in paintings, some nude, others where she models his dresses.

Much of the three-storey building has been arranged as it was when he lived there, making it the best place to get the real experience of Fortuny’s art, work and life. The Palazzo also holds temporary exhibitions featuring other artists.

The Palazzo Fortuny Museum

Calle a Fianco Ca’ Pesaro, San Marco 3958

www.fortuny.visitmuve.it

Open daily, except Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Fortuny bought this former convent in 1919 and transformed it into a factory. Nearly a century later, Fortuny fabrics are still produced here, using the original machines and the same secret processes.

You can’t go into the factory (trade secrets), but you can visit the showroom, and also the adjacent gardens by appointment.

Giudecca 805
http://fortuny.com/venice/

Showroom Hours:
November – March: Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.
April – October: Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

This is an authorized manufacturer and retailer of Fortuny designs including lamps and clothing. The shop is near Piazza San Marco. They will ship worldwide.

San Marco 2425
http://www.venetiastudium.com

Their U.S. ecommerce store is https://us.fortunyshop.com/

There’s nothing like having WiFi wherever you go. We rented a Teppy portable WiFi and carried it with us everywhere. With a Teppy, you can connect your phones, tablets, laptops and gaming consoles just like you connect to WiFi at home.

Use the apps on your phone including your favorite GPS apps without paying expensive cellular service fees.

It’s also perfect for uploading pictures, sending emails or just web browsing. We also used it for online work on the road including web updates and social media.

Teppy portable WiFi works around the world. Try it on your next trip.

For hotel accommodation, we like Booking.com. Photographs show off the properties, and real reviews help you choose the hotel that’s best for you. You’ll find a great selection, current prices and pages that make booking easy.

Remember, Italy is one of the world’s most popular destinations and can get very busy, so book early to get the best selection and price.

Click here, and you’ll get $25 off your next reservation on Booking.com.

We’ve also rented Airbnb throughout USA and Europe. We wrote an article about renting Airbnb, 12 Tips for a Great Renting Experience to help you make the right decision. If it’s your first time renting Airbnb, click here to get the equivalent of $50 CDN off your first booking.

Along with the websites and other travel planning tools, we still like to have a guide book handy. We’ve tried them all, and these days we prefer Lonely Planet books.

Use our link to get 10% off your total order when you enter EARTHTRIPPERS10 during checkout, where it asks for the Discount Code. Please note, this offer is valid only in USA and Canada.

These days there are many things that can happen when you travel, aside from getting bumped from a flight. That’s why we always get insurance for our trips. It covers damage, loss or theft of our belongings, health issues and if necessary, emergency evacuation. Better safe than sorry.

Whether you’ve just booked your trip or are already underway, you can get covered by World Nomads. It’s one of the most popular insurance companies designed specifically for travellers. See if it’s right for you.

Everything you need to know about renting a car in Italy. Read it before you go. Could save you a fortune.

Venice for 11 days just for photography? How did it go? (Hint: Wasn’t enough time, believe it or not!)

Thoughts before taking an 11-day photo trip to Venice. Would it be worth it? Would I enjoy it? Yes and yes…

Read about the exceptional week we spent in Venice in September – including opera at La Fenice.

Read about the extraordinary kindness from Italians we experienced every day in Italy.

Take advantage of our Top 5 Tips for visiting the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s in Rome.

This account of Monticchiello, a small Italian hilltop village, will open your eyes to its history and brush with annihilation.

We planned to go to Cinque Terre, but didn’t. Why not?