This ravishing book opens a window onto the lives, designs, and passions of two
charismatic artists. Born a generation apart, they were seeming opposites: Maria
no 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 Nor
th. Yet through their revolutionary inventions and textiles, both men inspired a
new variety of art, as vibrant today as when it was first conceived.
Acclaim
ed 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.
