Villa Silvio Pellico, Garden Sketch Plan RP/1/10/27/5

A pencil and coloured pencil design on paper dated 21 August 1957 (scale 1/200). The earliest dated plan for Villa Silvio Pellico, like RP/1/10/27/6 it shows a suggested layout for the garden with the main section running from north to south. Here, the proportions of the two side gardens to east and west create more of a Latin cross shape than in RP/1/10/27/5, an effect reinforced by the addition of a circular section of garden to the east. Trees and flowers (‘Arbes et fleurs’) are indicated in the areas surrounding the main structural design. The staircase that links the garden to the house is now angled in a diamond pattern (close to how it was eventually realised).

A classical garden arranged across a variety of levels, Page’s design for Villa Silvio Pellico, an 18th-century villa close to Turin in northern Italy, demonstrates his remarkable ability to perfect his design according to the site.