Jacket

Fortuny’s vast textile collection included examples from Islamic Spain, which introduced him to motifs he adapted for his own designs. One fragment, woven in Granada in the mid-fourteenth century during the Nasrid period and now in the collection of the Museo del Traje in Madrid, displays complex interlacements of geometric motifs worked in gold thread on a satin ground. For this jacket, Fortuny conceived a similarly intricate geometric pattern in soft shades of gold and silver on a blue velvet ground. It was this color combination that Proust envisioned for a Fortuny gown worn by his character Albertine in In Search of Lost Time; he described the gown’s enchanting hues and lush patterning as being reminiscent of Venice. For Proust, a Fortuny ensemble could capture the shimmering light, color, and ornament of Venice itself, a city that, like Granada, reflected the historical exchange of artistic influence between Islamic and European cultures.