Peacock & Vine

May 23, 2016
In this persuasively argued essay, Booker Prize–winning novelist Byatt (Possession) makes a case for viewing the achievements of two seemingly dissimilar designers—William Morris (1834–1896) and Mariano Fortuny (1871–1949)—in the same light. The English-born Morris came from a bourgeois background and, like his associates Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones (both of who were members of the group of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), looked to the medieval Christian tradition as inspiration for his fabric and textile designs. Fortuny, who was descended from an aristocratic Spanish family and designed fabrics in his Venice studio, had an imagination steeped in Mediterranean culture and informed by his fascination with ancient Cretan civilization in Knossos. Looking beyond the superficialities of both mens’ lives and work, Byatt finds kinship in their indebtedness to classic traditions, several shared motifs in their art (notably peacocks and pomegranates), and the balance of beauty and utility that they strove for in their productions. Byatt is an unabashed enthusiast of both her subjects, and her passion for their work enlivens every sentence of her text. Abundant illustrations bear out her contention that both men “created their own surroundings, changed the visual world around them, studied the forms of the past, and made them parts of new forms.” Color illus.

June 15, 2016
An impassioned dual appreciation of two 19th-century creators who turned their lives into art.In this amply illustrated extended essay, novelist Byatt (Ragnarok: The End of the Gods, 2012, etc.) juxtaposes two artists, one well-known and one less so. Besides being virtually synonymous with his style of design, William Morris (1834-1896) is known for his own writings and his association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949) was an Italian fashion designer whose brilliant dresses and gowns earned him a lasting name in high art circles. In Remembrance of Things Past, Proust dressed his character Albertine in a Fortuny gown; Isadora Duncan and Eleanora Duse danced in them, and, decades later, Susan Sontag chose to be buried in one. Although the two men were born generations and worlds apart and did not intersect, for Byatt, both embody the idea of constant creativity and workmanship. They were artists and artisans; the world was their studio; and neither was ever restricted to a single means of expression. Morris was almost as famous for his homes--the Red House and Kelmscott Manor--and gardens as for his books and designs. He was also skilled at calligraphy, dyeing, painting, paper-making, tapestry, and engraving. Fortuny was a photographer and maker of lamps and a lighting artist for the stage, and he designed his own reading desk and took out more than 50 patents. Morris was a devotee of nature while Fortuny was devoted to the female form, but both had rigorous and highly ordered imaginations. They challenge Byatt to look deeper and express more. "Reading Fortuny and Morris together," she writes, "made me think very hard, and with great pleasure, about the need to make representations of the outside world, and about the need to hand these on and change them." Although brief, this is an inspiring homage that forges illuminating connections between two dynamos.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2016

While on a trip to Venice, Italy, and the home of Spanish designer Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949), author and scholar Byatt (Possession) began thinking about the light and colors of the English landscape, and of British artist William Morris (1834-96). She had long been an admirer of the founder of the arts & crafts movement but knew little of Fortuny, renowned for his sumptuous textiles and elegant dress styles. This book is a meditation on the work of these polymaths, examined through their relationships (Morris had a notoriously unhappy marriage, while Fortuny experienced a loving partnership with his wife); their homes and workshops; and their inspirations. Both men's work contains references to history--Morris's to medievalism, Fortuny's to classical art--and are imbued with imagery, pattern, color, and natural shapes. Byatt shares her "unexpected" discoveries: that while approaching art from seemingly different directions, these immensely talented craftsmen arrived at an aesthetic that embodied the past while reimagining it into exquisite new forms filled with balance, symbol, and wonder. VERDICT This slim gem of a book offers a look at the lives and careers of two passionate, inventive artists, as well as what Byatt reveals preoccupies her as both a reader and writer, "work." [See Prepub Alert, 2/29/16.]--Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.