Mariano Fortuny Y Mandrazo (Granada 1871 - Venezia 1949). Son of art and very quickly inserted into the great world of Paris, he did pictorial studies. Eighteen he moved to Venice, where he attended academic circles and international art circles: among his friends Gabriele D'Annunzio, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the marchesa Casati, Prince Hohenlohe Waldenburg Fritz, etc..
After a trip to Bayreuth, strucked by Wagner, he is turning his interest from painting to set design and lighting techniques. The aim is to attain the ultimate meaning of union between music and painting theater. Soon after he makes the scenes for the world premiere of Tristan und Isolde at La Scala. At the same time the idea began to take shape of the dome, which is that the complex lighting system that will free the stage design from the rigid traditional approach, using the indirect and diffused light.
The Parisian (from Sarah Bernhardt to Adolphe Appia) shows him attention, but with the patron countess of Bearn, that the Fortuny stagecraft revolution is complete application: between 1903 and 1906 the private theater of the countess has an integrated system and renovated dome, indirect light, projection of colored skies and clouds. The system of Fortuny, AEG producted, it is used in the major German theaters.
But the search for creative new incentives to Mariano: he starts creating fabrics and printed fabrics, also he begans his association with Henriette, whom he married in 1924. Delphos was created with her, the dress in pleated silk that makes it famous throughout the world.
In Venice, near the island of Giudecca, he founded the factory for the industrial production of its fabrics and open boutiques in major European capitals. Meanwhile he decorated and illuminated buildings and museums throughout Europe, receiving awards and honorary titles. The interests and fees for the theater and set design continue. Thirties are other inventions, from the color photographic printing paper to "temper Fortuny" and interventions on the major lighting cycles fot the Venetian painters Tintoretto's San Rocco and Carpaccio in San Giorgio.
At the end of the decade, Mariano retired to his palatial home of San Beneto, where he resumed the study of painting and collecting the memories of his eclectic activities. He was buried in Rome, at the Verano cemetery, beside her father, Mariano Fortuny Y Marsal (1838 - 1874) painter known for the virtuosity of a light, minute, superficial.
On 2012 from 08/12 to 08/04/2013 the exhibition at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice "Fortuny and Wagner. Wagnerism in italian visual arts".
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