In Fortuny’s footsteps … Antonia Byatt in Venice. Photograph: Fabrizio Giraldi
REVIEW
Peacock and Vine by AS Byatt review – Mariano Fortuny and William Morris, masters of design
Byatt teases out the similarities and contrasts between two multifaceted makers, who each gave their name to famous brands, in this late-life meditation on the values of art
Fiona MacCarthyFriday 1 June 2016
All admirers of AS Byatt’s writing are aware of her profound intellectual awareness of the visual coexisting with an almost childlike delight in the colours and tactilities of everyday life. Think back to the beginning of the great quartet of novels that feature Frederica Potter. The first of these, The Virgin in the Garden, opens with that glittering and sensuous 1960s party set in the National Portrait Gallery. Byatt’s short stories, like her novels, invent narratives in which art is of the essence. The Matisse Stories especially come to mind.
