Biographical overview
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Granada, 1871 – Venice, 1949), son of the internationally renowned painter and collector Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (1838–1874), moved to Paris with his mother and sister, where he entered artistic and theatrical circles. In 1889 he settled in Venice, where he began attending the Academy of Fine Arts, embarking on a multifaceted career as a painter, photographer, set designer, and lighting innovator. From 1906 onwards, together with his wife Henriette Nigrin, he established a small workshop in Palazzo Orfei for textile printing and the creation of garments—an enterprise that brought him international acclaim.
The bequest
The collection consists of the Spanish artist’s private archive, a valuable and essential resource for the study and understanding of his work. It entered the Library in 1971 as a donation from Angela Mariutti de Sánchez Rivero, a Venetian scholar and founder of the Association for Cultural Relations with Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. A great admirer of Fortuny and a personal friend of his widow, Henriette Nigrin, she had received this important body of documentation as a gift from her, with the intention that she should preserve it and use it for her own research.
Extent and composition
The collection is highly heterogeneous in the materials it contains (letters, drafts, photographs, newspaper clippings, index cards, fabric samples, drawings, prints, and patents). It is organised into three series:
- Photographs (Fotografie, F): 1,682 items of various formats and techniques, preserved in twenty-five binders and arranged by subject. All the photographs date from the late nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century.
- Newspaper Clippings (Ritagli di giornale, RS): 581 clippings preserved in ten binders. The articles date from 1874 to 1958, although the vast majority belong to the first four decades of the twentieth century.
- Drafts and Miscellaneous Materials (Carteggi minute e altro materiale miscellaneo, M): this series includes the numerous letters received by Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo and his wife Henriette Nigrin, as well as drafts of letters sent by them to various correspondents. It also comprises handwritten notes, memoranda, inventories, index cards, drawings, advertising brochures, patents, and related materials, preserved in nine archival boxes. Particularly noteworthy are fourteen autograph letters by Gabriele D'Annunzio, several small drawings by Mariano Fortuny, and the complete series of his patents.
Inventory
All documents are numbered and described in an analytical inventory available for consultation in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Room upon request.
Further reading:
- Mariano Fortuny, edited by Maurizio Barberis, Venice, Marsilio, 1999 (catalogue of the exhibition held in Venice, 1999–2000).
- Marcello Brusegan, “Il fondo Mariutti Fortuny della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana di Venezia,” in Seta & oro. La collezione tessile di Mariano Fortuny, edited by Doretta Davanzo Poli, Venice, Arsenale Editrice, 1997, pp. 189–195.
- Marcello Brusegan – Marzia Maino, “Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo e il mondo artistico. Contatti e collaborazioni ricostruiti attraverso i documenti del Fondo Mariutti-Fortuny della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana di Venezia,” in Il bibliotecario inattuale, Padua, Edizioni Nova Carta, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 119–143.
