'Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Palazzo Corsini, Rome', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Palazzo Corsini, Rome

From Vatican Fragments Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CLXXX

Date 1819

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 161 x 101 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D15105

Turner Bequest CLXXX 1

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Vatican Fragments Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 1 Recto:

Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Palazzo Corsini, Rome 1819

D15105
Turner Bequest CLXXX 1

Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 101 mm

Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Pazzia] [...] artists in the [...] St Church Maggiore O | the [?Innocence]’ across top, and ‘[?Ire di F...] to right of sketch top right, and ‘End of the S’ to right of third sketch from top and ‘Val[...] | C[...] | Pl[...]’ bottom left, inverted
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘1’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXX 1’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Cecilia Powell has identified the sketches on this page as studies of sculptural fragments from the Palazzo Corsini in Rome. This fifteenth-century palace, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, stands in the Trastevere district near the Villa Farnesina, at the foot of the Janiculum Hill. Today it houses the National Gallery of Ancient Art, a collection largely comprised of works amassed by the Corsini family. The drawings are numbered from top left to bottom right:

a.
The sketch in the top left hand corner represents the tombstone of L. Camurtius Punicus from the stairs of the Palazzo.1
b.
The detail in the top right-hand corner is unidentified.
c.
The sketch in the centre of the page depicts the front panel of a sarcophagus decorated with sculptural reliefs of tritons, nereids and sea-monsters.2 Turner has also recorded the end panel of the same sarcophagus, decorated with a marine figure blowing a conch.3
d.
The sketch at the bottom represents the Sedia Corsini, an antique chair or throne decorated with marble reliefs.4 This was the most important antiquity in the palazzo.5

Notes about paintings in the Palazzo Corsini can be found on folio 1 verso (D15106) and in the Route to Rome sketchbook (Tate D13881; Turner Bequest CLXXI 13).

Nicola Moorby
December 2009

Powell 1984, p.411.

Powell 1984, p.411; Salomon Reinach Répertoire de Reliefs Grecs et Romains, vol.3, Paris 1912, p.223 no.1, reproduced.

Powell 1984, p.411; Reinach 1912, p.223 no.3, reproduced.

Powell 1984, p.411; Reinach 1912, p.224 no.5, reproduced.

Powell 1984, p.477 note 11.

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.