Fortuny Museum

Palazzo Fortuny is a Gothic-style Venetian palace that was the home and workshop of artist Mariano Fortuny. It is now a museum housing the eclectic collection of works in various media by the fascinating man who found great success in Venice.

Mariano Fortuny was born in Grenada, Spain but his family moved to Paris and then Venice. Fortuny was a versatile "Renaissance man" who worked as a painter, etcher, photographer, inventor, theatrical set designer and fashion designer. His muse and work partner was his wife Henriette Negrin, who was a dress maker. Together, they hosted intellectual gatherings and worked side by side in the palace's workshops. Fortuny patented 20 inventions, including the revolutionary Fortuny cyclorama dome, a ground-breaking lighting and backdrop scenographic method for theaters. He experimented with and implemented ways of enacting more seamless set transitions and special effects for the stage. He also pioneered one of the world's first dimmer switches.

He and Henriette shared a passion for textiles, and he manufactured his own dyes then invented a special printing press to emboss them into designs on various fabrics. He is perhaps most known for his legendary pleated gown known as the Delphos gown. It was inspired by Greek classic statues and the narrow, perfect pleats where hand done by a secret method, never duplicated. Even now, a hundred years later, the pleats have held their shape, as you can see in the displays at the museum. The Delphos flattered the female figure and allowed free movement, so was favored by dancers of the day.

The Palazzo Fortuny Museum displays the various works of this interesting man - from lamps to fabrics to paintings and photographys, to the famous gown.