100% DESIGN LONDON - DalCasa

“Fortuny” funkcionira kao rotirajuća podna lampa
s mehanizmom za prilagođavanje visine / “Fortuny”
functions as a rotating floor lamp with a mechanism
that adjusts the height
Rođendanski model lampe
“Century” / “Birthday” model of
the lamp named “Century”
has affected many contemporary designers, such as the
Japanese creator Issey Miyake.
Experimenting with Light
At the turn of the century, besides painting and working
with textile, Fortuny experimented by using the then-invented
electric light in scene design. During that same
year of 1907, the “Fortuny” lamp was designed after a
stage light in the theatre that enabled the lighting on the
stage to be changed effortlessly, ranging from the daylight
of the clear sky to eclipse and dusk. Lamp “Fortuny”
functions on a similar principle and clearly demonstrates
the designer’s philosophy that “objects do not become
visible due to the amount of light, but rather due to its
quality”. This elegant lamp subtly defuses the light that
overflows like an opal through silken curtains that are
spread over its gentle construction. The silk was manually
coloured on the original lamp, and it contained golden
motifs inspired by Oriental art, while glass beads and silken
leashes were added at the end.
Floor lamp “Fortuny” is again being manufactured since
1985, and it is produced by Italian company “Pallucco”.
Due to the 100th anniversary of this exceptional designer
piece, the lamp was modified in order to put extra-emphasis
on its pure and simple lines. The white colour, which
discretely points out its elegant construction, and silver
rays in a futuristic rhythmical sequence make it fresh and
extremely attractive, adjusting it to the dynamic present
period. “Fortuny” functions as a rotating floor lamp with a
mechanism that adjusts the height, and it’s available in
white, beige or black, as well as in an ornamental version
of the background, featuring a white print on a beige
or black surface. The newest “birthday” model of this
lamp named “Century” also has silver prints on the background’s
inside.
The “Fortuny” lamp is an example of early modernist preoccupation
with industrial materials, functionalism and
position of the object in a room. Distinct like a modernist
sculpture, the lamp dominates the room in a certain way,
but in no moment does the decorative side dominate the
functional side. However, if you put the “Fortuny” lamp in
a spacious interior, it will hardly stay unnoticed.
Mariano Fortuny Y Madrazo has spent most of his creative
and overall life in Venice. That’s where he bought
the impressive palace Pesaro Orfei, which he turned into
a huge atelier/laboratory named Palazzo Fortuny, and
today that is the home of museum “Fortuny”, where you
can find numerous products of his work. Celebrated as
the “Venetian Magician” in his time by his contemporaries,
Mariano Fortuny will remain remembered in the
history of art and design as one of the last “renaissance
people” in the true sense of that term. Constant curiosity
pushed him into brand new quests, whether it meant
travelling the broad European or Oriental spaces, or
reaching down deep into the history of ancient Greece
and Egypt. Inspired by the work and figure of German
compositor, but also philosopher, Richard Wagner, Fortuny
defined his own aesthetical ideals. He claimed that
an artist should control every stage of his artistic process,
down to the slightest of details, and that no artistic discipline
outweighs the other one because they are all just
as important. An artist who invented the boat propeller,
inventor who designed Isadora Duncan’s most beautiful
dresses, an aesthete who made his own furniture and
painting equipment, set pages on his own books, and
also a theoretician of light who implemented his own theories
in practice while achieving amazing results, Mariano
Fortuny has left an undeniable influence on modern life.
Fortuny’s fabrics are still manufactured, and they have
just as much quality, are incredibly durable and covered
in a dose of mystique because Fortuny’s methods were
never completely revealed to the public, according to
the legend. Still, some of his designer pieces, such as the
“Fortuny” lamp, are still manufactured and further perfected,
and are available to buyers of refined taste and
a deeper pocket.
Pallucco’s “Fortuny” lamp is also available in our area
and can be purchased through the “Lumenart” company
from Pula, which deals with designing architectural
lighting.
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