'Details of the Decorations of Raphael's Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of 'Raphael's Bible' from the Second Vault of the Ceiling', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Details of the Decorations of Raphael's Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of 'Raphael's Bible' from the Second Vault of the Ceiling

From Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXXIX

Date 1819

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 112 x 186 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D14959

Turner Bequest CLXXIX 16

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 16 Recto:

Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of ‘Raphael’s Bible’ from the Second Vault of the Ceiling 1819

D14959
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 16

Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil with various notes on the loggia decorations [see main catalogue entry]
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘16’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 16’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Exhibition history

References

1909

A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.527 as ‘Details of the decorations of the Logge. No.122d, Second Loan Collection’.

1965

Jerrold Ziff, ‘Copies of Claude’s Paintings in the Sketch Books of J.M.W. Turner, Gazette des beaux-arts, vol.65, January 1965, pp.56, 64 note 24.

1974

Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.92 under no.236.

1979

Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.147.

1982

Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.107 no.228.

1982

Cecilia Powell, ‘Exhibition Review: Turner’s First Visit to Italy in 1819’, Turner Studies, Summer 1982, vol.2, no.1, p.48.

1984

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.137 no.228.

1984

Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.148, 151 note 2, 235.

1986

Gerald Finley, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s “Rome from the Vatican”: A Palimpsest of History?’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol.49, 1986, p.56, reproduced p.57 pl.2.

1987

Robert E. McVaugh, ‘Turner and Rome, Raphael and the Fornarina’, Studies in Romanticism, no.26, Autumn 1987, pp.371–2.

1987

Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.65 note 1.

1991

Ian Warrell, ‘R.N. Wornum and the First Three Loan Collections: A History of the Early Displays of the Turner Bequest Outside London’, Turner Studies, Summer 1991, vol.11, no.1, p.45, no.122d.

1997

James Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997, p.205 note 1.

1998

James Hamilton, Turner and the Scientists, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, p.68.

2009

Ian Warrell, ‘Painters Painted: The Cult of the Artist’, in David Solkin (ed.), Turner and the Masters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009, pp.172 under no.63, 229 note 1.

2010

David Solkin and Guillaume Faroult (eds.), Turner et ses peintres, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris 2010, pp.196, 262 note 12.

2011

Nicola Moorby, ‘Turner’s Sketches for “Rome from the Vatican”: Some Recent Discoveries’, Turner Society News, no.115, Spring 2011, pp.5, 10 notes 16 and 20.

The sketch on this page represents the decorative fresco scheme in the second ceiling vault of the Loggia of Raphael in the Vatican. This is comprised of a central panel featuring a winged victory or angel carrying the emblematic Medici ring, and four scenes from ‘Raphael’s Bible’. The latter include, anti-clockwise from the bottom:

a.
The Creation of Eve by Tommaso Vincidor (1493–1536).1 Turner has inscribed the sketch ‘V Light’ and ‘Gn’, and additionally has noted ‘Lake Robe | is V Light in the Mass | as Light as W Beard | Eve beautiful Col | Adam B’[?Sani]’.
b.
The Fall (or Original Sin) by Vincidor and Pellegrino da Modena (1460–1523).2 Inscribed beneath ‘Cold [?Round] Flesh [?c...] [?t...] [...] Gr’.
c.
The Expulsion from the Garden (or The Expulsion from Paradise) by Vincidor.3 Inscribed with colour notes ‘V L Y’ (i.e. Very Light Yellow) and ‘Yellow | Bl’.
d.
The Labours of Adam and Eve by ?Vincidor.4 Inscribed ‘Lake’ and ‘Gr’ within the scene and ‘Gold’ in the top left-hand corner. To the left, Turner has further noted, with reference to the corner of the vault, ‘Blue Ground White Bor[der] | Lilac Spandrel | Yellow Balls | B and D Red’.
e.
The grotesque decorations from one of the corners, which is symmetrically repeated in the other four. The component parts are variously annotated with colour notes ‘Green Red | and White Balls | and Cho G’, ‘Gold on Blue’, ‘Cho Gr [?Gr | 15]’ and ‘B and W’.

A rough diagrammatic plan of the same vault can be seen on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 15 verso (D14958). The Creation of Eve and the decoration within the corner spandrels are clearly visible in Turner’s painted recreation of the loggia within the right-hand side of the composition of Rome from the Vatican. The artist has additionally imagined the ‘Expulsion from the Garden’ as a separate canvas which is displayed in the foreground of the picture at the far left of the assemblage of objets d’art associated with Raphael.5 Further studies related to the evolution of Rome from the Vatican can be found on folios 13 verso–15 verso, 17–21 verso and 25–26 (D14955–D14958, D14960–D14966 and D14970–D14972), as well as an elaborate compositional drawing in pen and ink in the Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16368; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41). For a full description of the loggia and Turner’s sketches see folio 14 (D14956).

This page was selected by Ralph Nicholson Wornum for the Second Loan Collection, a group of sixty-two works exhibited in the provinces during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.6 It was removed from the sketchbook and displayed within a mount. Consequently, like the other works included in those tours, the drawing has suffered badly from over-exposure to light and the paper has yellowed considerably.

Nicole Dacos, Le Logge di Rafaello: Maestro e bottega di fronte all’antico, Rome 1977, no.II.1, reproduced Tav.XII and Nicole Dacos, The Loggia of Raphael: A Vatican Art Treasure, New York and London 2008, pl.103, pl.142.

Dacos 1977, no.II.2, reproduced Tav.XIII and Dacos 2008, pl.104, p.143.

Dacos 1977, no.II.3, reproduced Tav.XIV and Dacos 2008, pl.105, p.144.

Dacos 1977, no.II.4, reproduced Tav.XV and Dacos 2008, pl.106, p.146.

See Mordechai Omer, ‘Turner and “The Building of the Ark” from Raphael’s Third Vault of the Loggia’, Burlington Magazine, vol.117, November 1975, p.694 note 5.

Warrell 1991, pp.36–8.

Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
January 2010

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.