We have extensively explored in the last few posts Mariano Fortuny's artistic legacy, highlighting that his rich collection of antique fabrics and textiles was particularly important for his creative process.
During Fortuny's time collecting fabrics had become a popular hobby and textiles were often employed to furnish rooms in an eclectic and decadent style (think about Gabriele D'Annunzio's Vittoriale and you get an idea).
Among the textiles in Fortuny's collection there are also religious vestments and liturgical garments like the "dalmatica" (dalmatic; on the left) and the "tunicella" (tunicle; on the right) in the first image in this post.
The dalmatica is an overgown mainly used by deacons, with a short and squarish shape and no side seams. The crimson velvet dalmatic in Fortuny's collection features silk velvet inserts and can be dated to the second half of the 15th century.
The crimson velvet tonacella in Fortuny's collection, dating from the first half of the 15th century, integrated instead brocaded panels with floral motifs "en quinconce" that included roses, acanthus branches and pine cones with a pomegranate in the centre (a classic motif from those times, as highlighted in the previous post) and tian (in Chinese "heaven" or "sky") symbols surrounded by sunrays.
Quite a few of the pieces included in Fortuny's collection (like these ones) were made with "velluti a inferriata" (voided velvets), a decorative pattern reminiscent of iron gates or grids that Fortuny employed also for Eleonora Duse's and Caramba's costumes.
Image credits for this post
All images in this post copyright © Anna Battista, 2019
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