In 1875, Oscar Wilde traveled to Italy. For an Englishman of the Victorian era, visiting Italy was not only part of the traditional Grand Tour, meant to discover art and classical beauty, but also an opportunity to experience a country known at the time for its relative tolerance in matters of sexuality. It is no secret that many homosexual men found in cities such as Venice a sense of refuge and personal freedom unavailable elsewhere in Europe.

The emotional impact Venice had on Wilde was profound and likely influenced by The Stones of Venice, the celebrated book by art critic and scholar John Ruskin, whom Wilde had met during his years at Oxford. To Wilde, Venice appeared as an uninterrupted procession of churches and palaces, white and golden domes, and soaring bell towers. He famously observed that Venice seems to have no open spaces, with the exception of St. Mark’s Square, and described the city as the perfect setting for romance, where every scene feels inherently poetic.

Wilde was particularly captivated by the beauty of St. Mark’s Basilica and the Rialto Bridge. Although his surviving letters do not specify all the places he visited during his stay, they offer valuable clues that allow us to reconstruct his Venetian experience.

A book published in 2022, Silence sur Venise by Marie Gervais-Vidricaire, imagines a fictional encounter in Venice between a young Marcel Proust, the artist Mariano Fortuny, and Oscar Wilde. The novel stages a conversation on art and beauty among these great figures and also features Stefan Zweig, expressing his early desire to become a writer inspired by Wilde himself.

Mariano Fortuny—painter, designer, and eclectic artist—restored Palazzo Pesaro, transforming it into a house-atelier that became one of the most refined expressions of European Decadentism. The influence of Oscar Wilde’s poetry, themes, and aesthetic philosophy on Fortuny’s work was remarkably strong, and the palace itself reflects this fascination. Wilde and Fortuny shared a deep admiration for ancient Greek culture, as well as strikingly similar artistic sensibilities and tastes. It is not difficult to imagine that, had Wilde himself designed the palace, it would not appear very different.

A revealing example is Fortuny’s famous shawl “Knossos”, which echoes the sensual atmosphere of Wilde’s Salomé and played a significant role in shaping the image of the femme fatale during the Belle Époque. Through Venice, art, and shared ideals of beauty, Oscar Wilde’s legacy continues to resonate in the city’s most decadent and evocative spaces.