A. S. Byatt. (2016). Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

A. S. Byatt. 2016. Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

A. S. Byatt, Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

A. S. Byatt. Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

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1. • value: Invention
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3. • value: Biography
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35. • value: design book
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37. • value: biographies of famous people
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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Byatt, A. S.
   • bioText: A. S. Byatt was the author of numerous novels, including The Children’s Book, The Biographer’s Tale, and Possession, which was awarded the Booker Prize. She also wrote two novellas, published together as Angels & Insects, five collections of short stories, and several works of nonfiction. A distinguished critic and author, and the recipient of the 2016 Erasmus Prize for her “inspiring contribution to ‘life writing,’” she died in 2023.
   • name: A. S. Byatt

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Peacock & Vine

fullDescription

From the winner of the Booker Prize: A ravishing book that opens a window into the lives, designs, and passions of Mariano Fortuny and William Morris, two remarkable artists who themselves are passions of the writer A. S. Byatt.
Born a generation apart in the mid-1800s, Fortuny and Morris were seeming opposites: Fortuny a Spanish aristocrat thrilled by the sun-baked cultures of Crete and Knossos; Morris a member of the British bourgeoisie, enthralled by Nordic myths. Through their revolutionary inventions and textiles, both men inspired a new variety of art that is as striking today as when it was first conceived. In this elegant meditation, Byatt traces their genius right to the source.
Fortuny’s Palazzo Pesaro Orfei in Venice is a warren of dark spaces imbued with the rich hues of Asia. In his attic workshop, Fortuny created intricate designs from glowing silks and velvets; in the palazzo he found “happiness in a glittering cavern” alongside the French model who became his wife and collaborator, including on the famous “Delphos” dress—a flowing, pleated gown that evoked the era of classical Greece.
Morris’s Red House outside London, with its Gothic turrets and secret gardens, helped inspire his stunning floral and geometric patterns; it likewise represented a coming together of life and art. But it was a “sweet simple old place” called Kelmscott Manor in the countryside that he loved best—even when it became the setting for his wife’s love affair with the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Generously illustrated with the artists’ beautiful designs—pomegranates and acanthus, peacock and vine—among other aspects of their worlds, this marvel-filled book brings the visions and ideas of Fortuny and Morris to vivid life.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review
   • content: "A charming, generously illustrated, slim volume about two geniuses the likes of whom we have not seen in a while . . . William Morris and Mariano Fortuny each left a strong imprint on our decorative vocabularies. In chapters that visit their houses, their inspirations, and their signature motifs, Byatt explains how she was drawn to these 'two obsessive workers, endlessly inventive, endlessly rigorous, endlessly beautiful.' Each lived and worked with a belief that artisans should have the status of artists, a surprisingly contemporary view . . . These handsomely decorated pages are most successful in evoking the 'sensual pleasure' Byatt derived from her project. When I closed Peacock & Vine, my thoughts lingered not just on Morris and Fortuny but on all those artists who have thrown open windows on our history, enriching us with the touch of their hands--and their hearts."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Patricia Hagen, Minneapolis StarTribune
   • content: "Fascinating . . . Wouldn't it be lovely to be an artist whose existence was so whole, so seamless, that life and art would flow together indistinguishably, like water in a river? This book is a reflection on two whose lives achieved this end. Each chapter explores a different element of Morris and Fortuny's lives and art: their houses, their travels (physical and mental), their fabric designs. The concluding chapters explore the innovative but related use both men made of two motifs, pomegranates and birds. While both Morris and Fortuny are of interest in their own right, it is Byatt's cross-boundary connections that provide excitement."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Doug Childers, Richmond Times-Dispatch
   • content: "Enticing . . . a richly associative, lushly illustrated exploration of how Morris and Fortuny focused [their] insatiability into a variety of forms. Byatt also offers peeks into her own creative processes, and some of her abiding interests--color and light, among them. A personal essay [in which] her ideas flow as smoothly and intricately as a Fortuny gown."
4. • premium: False
   • source: ELLE Décor
   • content: "Charming . . . Byatt outlines the lives and passions--both intellectual and romantic--of two multitalented artist-designers who have captured her imagination. [The] illustrated Peacock & Vine contrasts the gracious gowns of the Venetian Fortuny with the English Morris's ornate patterns, and their 'geometry of branches and petals and fruits.'"
5. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
   • content: "An impassioned dual appreciation of two 19th century creators who turned their lives into art: William Morris, known for his own writings and his association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, [and] Mariano Fortuny, 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 danced in them, and decades later, Susan Sontag chose to be buried in on. . . . 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 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 . . . An amply illustrated, inspiring homage that forges illuminating connections between two dynamos."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly
   • content: "Booker Prize-winning novelist Byatt persuasively makes the case for viewing the achievements of two seemingly dissimilar designers in the same light. The English-born William Morris came from a bourgeois background, and looked to the medieval Christian tradition for inspiration for his fabric and textile designs. Mariano Fortuny, who was descended from an aristocratic Spanish family and designed fabrics in his Venice studio, had an imagination steeped in Mediterranean culture. Byatt finds kinship in their indebtedness to classic traditions, and the balance of beauty and utility that they strove for in their productions. Byatt is an unabash
7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     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.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     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.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     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.

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From the winner of the Booker Prize: A ravishing book that opens a window into the lives, designs, and passions of Mariano Fortuny and William Morris, two remarkable artists who themselves are passions of the writer A. S. Byatt.
Born a generation apart in the mid-1800s, Fortuny and Morris were seeming opposites: Fortuny a Spanish aristocrat thrilled by the sun-baked cultures of Crete and Knossos; Morris a member of the British bourgeoisie, enthralled by Nordic myths. Through their revolutionary inventions and textiles, both men inspired a new variety of art that is as striking today as when it was first conceived. In this elegant meditation, Byatt traces their genius right to the source.
Fortuny’s Palazzo Pesaro Orfei in Venice is a warren of dark spaces imbued with the rich hues of Asia. In his attic workshop, Fortuny created intricate designs from glowing silks and velvets; in the palazzo he found “happiness in a glittering cavern” alongside...

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On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny

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