Artist, photographer, experimenter, designer...it is difficult to single out which aspect of the personality and works of Mariano Fortuny is most prevalent. His entire artistic production is based on an extraordinary synthesis of worlds and eras, of styles and techniques that only in Venice, an age-old melting pot, could the invention of products of high aesthetic value be put into practice. Fortuny, in the residence of his very central palace, through a philological course, drew inspiration from the fascination and magic of Oriental countries as well as the antique and noble roots of Occidental art, becomes among the most original and brilliant participants of Venice's "silver age". His figure, in the circle of cosmopolitan culture at the turn of the century, is in fact directly connected to the names of its principal protagonists. Including Gabriele D'Annunzio with whom he collaborated on the stage production of Francesca da Rimini where Fortuny put into practice one of his ingenious inventions: the dimmer switch. A result of his constant studies on illumination, this device was used in the most prestigious theaters of the world and allowed stage sets to be even more iridescent and fantastic. Just as iridescent and fantastic were the thousand hues of the pleated silk, which was made possible with a particular loom that Fortuny himself patented, and the variegated fabrics with designs of renaissance and islamic inspiration. Curious and enterprising, Fortuny even penetrated into the risky universe of ladies' fashion. An attempt, needless to say, destined to be crowned with success. His collection of pleated silk tunics, the Peplos and Delphos, inspired from classicism and evoked by Proust in his Recherche represented a must in elegance for the divine creatures of the past like Isadora Duncan and Eleonora Duse and present time ambassadresses of fine taste like Gloria Vanderbilt and Lauren Hutton.