Gardens of the Italian Villas

Marella Agnelli was born Princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto in Florence, Italy on May 4, 1927. She studied art and design at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian in Paris before moving to New York where she modeled in exchange for the chance to learn about photography from Erwin Blumenfeld. She married Giovanni Agnelli of the Fiat car manufacturing empire on November 19, 1953.

She co-wrote two books about landscape architecture entitled Gardens of the Italian Villas and The Agnelli Gardens at Villar Perosa: Two Centuries of a Family Retreat. Her autobiography, Marella Agnelli: The Last Swan, was published in 2014. She died on February 23, 2019 at the age of 91.

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