Peacock And Vine: Fortuny And Morris In Life And At Work

Product Description

This ravishing book opens a window onto the lives designs & 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 & Knossos; William Morris a British craftsman in thrall to the myths of the North Yet through their revolutionary inventions & textiles both men inspired a new variety of art as vibrant today as when it was first conceived Acclaimed writer AS 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 & shining velvets Here he worked alongside the French model who became his wife & collaborator including on the Delphos' dress
- a flowing gown evoking classical Greece Morris's Red House outside London with its Gothic turrets & secret gardens helped inspire his stunning floral & geometric patterns; it also represented a coming together of life & 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 & acanthus peacock & vine
- AS Byatt brings the visions & ideas of Fortuny & Morris dazzlingly to life