Peacock and Vine Fortuny and Morris in Life and at Work
Synopsis
This ravishing book opens a window onto the lives, designs, and passions of two charismatic artists. Born a generation apart, they were seeming opposites: Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish aristocrat thrilled by the sun-baked cultures of Crete and Knossos; William Morris, a British craftsman, in thrall to the myths of the North. Yet through their revolutionary inventions and textiles, both men inspired a new variety of art, as vibrant today as when it was first conceived. Acclaimed writer A.S. Byatt traces their genius right to the source.The Palazzo Pesaro Orfei in Venice is a warren of dark spaces leading to a workshop where Fortuny created his designs for pleated silks and shining velvets. Here he worked alongside the French model who became his wife and collaborator, including on the ‘Delphos’ dress – a flowing gown evoking classical Greece.Morris’s Red House, outside London, with its Gothic turrets and secret gardens, helped inspire his stunning floral and geometric patterns; it also represented a coming together of life and art. But it was Kelmscott Manor in the English countryside that he loved best – even when it became the setting for his wife’s love affair with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Generously illustrated with the artists’ beautiful designs – pomegranates and acanthus, peacock and vine – A.S. Byatt brings the visions and ideas of Fortuny and Morris dazzlingly to life.Book details
- Author:
- A S Byatt
- ISBN:
- 9781473524934
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781784740801
- Publisher:
- Random House
- Pages:
- N/A
- Reading age:
- Not specified
- Includes images:
- Yes
- Date of addition:
- 2018-08-26
- Usage restrictions:
- Copyright
- Copyright date:
- 2016
- Copyright by:
- A S Byatt
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Categories:
- Literature and Fiction