The Serpent (Textile)

The Spanish-born polymath Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871–1949) revolutionised early 20th-century Paris fashion with his hand-pleated Delphos silk gowns — inspired by the drapery of ancient Greek sculpture — and with the printed velvets and silks he produced in his Venice studio. The 'Cobra' textile pattern, stamped by hand in gold and silver pigment on silk velvet, became one of his signature designs; Fortuny gowns were worn by Marcel Proust, Isadora Duncan, and Eleonora Duse. His Venetian palazzo — now the Museo Fortuny — preserves his textiles, lamps, pleating tools, and experimental dye archives in a lifelong gesamtkunstwerk.

Exhibition Venue

Museo Fortuny

Venice, Italy