Marella Agnelli


Marella Agnelli was an Italian noblewoman, art collector, socialite, style icon, and wife of Fiat S.p.A. chairman Gianni Agnelli. She often appeared in the fashion magazine Vogue. She was named to the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List in 1963.

Background

Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto was born in Florence, Kingdom of Italy, as a member of the House of Caracciolo of the high Italian nobility and aristocracy. Her father was Don Filippo Caracciolo, 8th Prince of Castagneto, 3rd Duke of Melito, and hereditary Patrician of Naples, from an old noble Neapolitan family dating back to the Kingdom of Naples; he took part in the Italian resistance movement, was the executive secretary of the National Liberation Committee, an undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Second Badoglio government, helped overcome objections for the Italian Communist Party to join the government, became secretary for the Action Party, and was general-secretary of the Council of Europe.
Agnelli's mother was Margaret Clarke, of Peoria, Illinois, United States, and Rockford, Illinois, the heiress of a well-known family of whiskey producers; she hung her mother's portraits in roomscapes of wicker furniture and sprigged cotton. She had two brothers: Don Carlo Caracciolo, who inherited their father's titles in 1965 and founded the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso and newspaper La Repubblica, and was known as "a prince among newspaper editors", or as "the editor prince", a reference to his aristocratic birth and elegant manner; and Don Nicola Caracciolo, the holder of both titles since 2008, as 10th Prince of Castagneto, 5th Duke of Melito, and hereditary Patrician of Naples. They grew up in Rome and Turkey, and spoke Italian, French, and English.

Family

She was married in Osthoffen to Gianni Agnelli, the Fiat tycoon who was widely referred to as "the uncrowned king of Italy", on 19 November 1953; they would remain married until his death on 24 January 2003. In their 50-year marriage, they had two children and eight grandchildren:
Into the 2020s, the de Pahlens remain involved in a dispute with the Elkanns over Agnelli's inheritance.

Career

After Agnelli obtained her diploma in Switzerland, she was educated in Paris, where she attended the Académie des Beaux-Arts and then the Académie Julian in Paris. As part of her varied career, which included photography, design, and art collection, as well as a modeling career, Agnelli began her photography career as an assistant to Erwin Blumenfeld in New York City, where she lived on Park Avenue on the Upper East Side. When she returned to Italy, Agnelli was also an occasional editor and photographic contributor to Vogue and Condé Nast, among other magazines. In 1973, she created a textile line for Abraham-Zumsteg, for which she was awarded the Resources Council's Roscoe in 1977. This was followed by work for the Ratti in Como, Steiner factories in France, and for Martex and numerous others for Marshall Field's in the United States. She specialized in furnishing fabrics.
An avid gardener, Agnelli authored a number of books on the subject, also providing many of the photographs. Two of her books are about the Agnelli Gardens at Villar Perosa, such as The Agnelli Gardens at Villar Perosa: Two Centuries of a Family Retreat, and the Garden of Ninfa, such as Il giardino di Ninfa. Into the 21st century, she oversaw the opening of the Renzo Piano-designed art gallery Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, built on the roof of the former Lingotto Fiat factory in Turin. The Agnelli collection includes Picasso, Renoir, Canaletto, Matisse, and Canova masterpieces, and opened in 2002. The gallery also puts on temporary modern art exhibitions. She commissioned art from the likes of Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon.
In 1970, Agnelli founded the National Commission of United World Colleges. She was a member of the International Board of Trustees of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, and of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among others, she was also vice-president of the Council of Palazzo Grassi in Venice, as well as president of I 200 del Fai in Milan and of the Association of Turin Friends of Contemporary Art in Turin.

The Swans

The reserved, patrician tastemaker, and socialite Agnelli was known for her inclusion in Truman Capote's the Swans, a circle of wealthy, stylish, and well-married women friends whose company he adored because, in his words, they "had created themselves, as he had done", and "had stories to tell". According to Capote, Agnelli was "the European swan numero uno", one of the youngest in a group that included Babe Paley, Gloria Guinness, C. Z. Guest, Slim Keith, Pamela Harriman, Lee Radziwill, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In her autobiography, Washington Post publisher and Capote friend Katharine Graham recounted that the author once told her that if Paley and Agnelli were "both in Tiffany's window, Marella would be more expensive." Agnelli herself was nicknamed the Swan by Richard Avedon for a 1949 photograph that appeared on Vogue; Agnelli was among the notable photos Avedon took. Her other nickname, the Last Swan, was coined by Capote.

Death

After a long illness, Agnelli died at the age of 91 on 23 February 2019 at her home in Turin; the announcement was made by her family. Days prior to her death, Agnelli's health deteriored, and the cause of death was ruled to be from complications of Parkinson's disease; she had been in a condition of invalidity for several years, and in her last months she was artificially fed. The funeral was held in a strictly private form on 25 February 2019 in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli at Villar Perosa. At the end of the ritual, her body was buried in the family chapel in the city cemetery. Among others, she was mourned by association football club Juventus, which is owned by the Agnelli family.

Popular culture

Agnelli was portrayed in the American biographical film Infamous by Isabella Rossellini.

Books