It was the lackluster mise-en-scène of a Wagner opera that ignited Mariano Fortuny’s interest in lighting. The painter, fashion designer, and innovator couldn’t understand why in 1893, despite the recent invention of the light bulb, outdated sets were still being lit with gas lamps. In his attic studio in Venice’s Palazzo Martinengo, Fortuny tinkered, discovering that when light reflected off a piece of paper, it could illuminate an entire room; use a colored surface and you could bathe the sets in a hue. Voilà: indirect lighting.
“It is not the quantity, but the quality of light that makes things visible,” mused Fortuny, who would soon take his findings offstage and into the home.
In 1907, using those same scenographic principles, he created a fixture that, among other things, evenly lit artworks: A bulb shone into a reflective, umbrella-like shade, which was perched on a steel tripod (these Studio 63 lamps are now sold Stateside via RH, from $6,200). For less utilitarian purposes, he conceptualized decorative mood lighting with Eastern-influenced silhouettes for his living quarters at Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, dressing delicate wire frames in hand-painted opaline silk. These pieces proved Fortuny’s point: Light is only as beautiful as what reflects it.
The lamps were sold to artists, nobility, and aristocrats in the early 20th century. Later they would light the homes of glitterati like Elizabeth Taylor and Karl Lagerfeld. Still produced at a Venice workshop (from $1,000), the lamps, now also made in glass, remain in vogue. Today you’ll spot an elegantly tattered one at The Row’s LA store (silk can age over time, but LED bulbs slow that down) and a floor lamp in the Hamptons home of fashion photographers Inez and Vinoodh. “They are instantly atmospheric,” says AD100 designer Ken Fulk, who hung a constellation of custom blue silk pendants in the exclusive Manhattan hot spot Shinji’s bar. Meanwhile, William Sofield, whose New York studio features a fine example, attributes the appeal to equal parts artistry and engineering, explaining simply, “Fortuny transformed light.” fortuny.us
