The ^English Garden at the Villa Borghese, Rome

This fan leaf shows a view of the English garden at the Villa Borghese in Rome. An Englishman, Jacob More, designed the garden, which was completed in 1787. It incorporates a number of ‘classical ruins’, invented by Antonio Asprucci. You can see one of them - 'the Temple of Aesculapius' - in the central vignette.

This Italian fan illustrates well the complex cultural exchange between Italy and England in the 18th century. It was probably made for an English tourist, and shows an English landscape garden designed for an Italian villa by an Englishman. The square divisions of the fan and narrow decorative borders show the influence of the Neo-classical style of the late 18th century.