'View of the Capitoline Hill, Rome, with the Church of Santissimo Nome di Maria', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

View of the Capitoline Hill, Rome, with the Church of Santissimo Nome di Maria

From Rome and Florence Sketchbook

Turner Bequest CXCI

Date 1819

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 113 x 189 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D16514

Turner Bequest CXCI 16

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

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Rome and Florence Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 16 Recto:

View of the Capitoline Hill, Rome, with the Church of Santissimo Nome di Maria 1819

D16514
Turner Bequest CXCI 16

Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm

Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ bottom right [very faint]
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 16’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

The subject of this panoramic sketch is the Capitoline Hill from the north-east with the tower of the Senatorial Palace and the northern façade and campanile of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Finberg incorrectly identified the domed church in the centre of the composition as Santi Martina e Luca in the Roman Forum. In fact it is Santissimo Nome di Maria in the Forum of Trajan. The faint indication of a second dome to the right may represent the nearby Church of Santa Maria di Loreto. The drawing continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 15 verso (D16513) with the Torre dei Milizie. The view today is much altered by ‘Il Vittoriano’, a massive monument built 1885–1911 and dedicated to Victor Emmanuel, the first king of unified Italy.

Nicola Moorby
February 2009

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.