Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo was a multi-faceted artist who worked in painting, engraving, industrial design, clothing and fabric design, stage set design, lighting and photography. His eclectic style was influenced by pre-classical Mediterranean cultures, classical Greece, the Renaissance and the cultures of North Africa, Japan and the orient. His father was the Orientalist artist Mriano Foruny y Marsal and his mother was Cecilia de Madrazo. Through her, he was descended from the most influential family in 19th century Spanish painting. Following the early death of his father, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo trained in Paris from 1874 to 1889 with his uncle Raimundo de Madrazo. He then moved to Venice, where he set up a studio first in the Martinengo palazzo and then, in 1899, at the Orfei palazzo, which now houses the museum that bears his name. At that time his interest turned to stage set design and theatre lighting techniques, driven by his passion for the operas of Wagner. In 1901 he patented an indirect lighting process known as the 'Fortuny System', and in 1903 he invented the 'Fortuny Dome', a cyclorama backdrop that worked as a screen and made full use of the potential of indirect light. This system was installed at La Scala in Milan in 1920 for a performance of Parsifal. In 1906 he travelled to Greece with his wife and assistant Henriette Negrín. It was there that he designed the two garments for which he is best known: the Knossos printed shawl and a woman's dress called the Delphos, which takes the form of a tunic in pleated silk, inspired by the Ionic chiton. In 1911 he founded the Mariano Fortuny company to sell fabrics. This was followed in 1919 by Sociedad Anónima Fortuny, a company that introduced several new technical procedures blended with ancestral craft techniques. Stand-out products in the field of industrial design include the metal and steel lamps that he designed for an exhibition of regional costumes from Madrid staged at the Palacio de Bibliotecas y Museos in the city in 1925. In the field of visual arts his stand-out works were female portraits, Venetian landscapes and Wagnerian themes. His stye is reminiscent of symbolism, with colours in a type of tempera paint of his own invention. He was also a fine engraver.

He won the Gold Medal at the Munich Art Exhibition in 1896 and took part in the Société National des Beaux Art salon in Paris in 1899, the Decorative Arts salon in Paris in 1911 and the International Exhibition in Milan in 1935, among other events.

Roberto Díaz