Joseph Mallord William Turner Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice; and Sketches of a Landscape and Woman, ?Senigallia 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Verso:
Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice; and Sketches of a Landscape and Woman, ?Senigallia 1819
D13908
Turner Bequest CLXXI 26 a
Turner Bequest CLXXI 26 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 88 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?College]’ and ‘very like Ld Eg’s Claude’ within bottom sketch, and ‘Sinigalia’ bottom left, ascending left-hand edge. Also with notes on copies of paintings (see main catalogue entry)
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.498, as ‘A landscape– “Very like Ld Eg’s Claude”, a figure, &c.’.
1971
Jerrold Ziff, ‘John Gage, “Color in Turner: Poetry and Truth” ’, Art Bulletin, vol.53, March 1971, pp.125–6.
1983
John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.30.
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Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.94, 96, 462 note 66, 467 note 117.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.26, 29.
1990
Kathleen Nicholson, Turner’s Classical Landscapes: Myth and Meaning, Princeton 1990, pp.245 and 262 note 50.
During his 1819 stay in Venice, Turner made a particular study of the famous cycle of paintings by Tintoretto (1518–94) in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Ian Warrell has identified the four sketches at the top of this page as copies of pictures from the ground floor and stairs. The subjects are, from top left to bottom right, as follows:
a.
The study in the top left-hand corner represents The Annunciation circa 1582–7, from the ground floor hall1 Turner has annotated the sketch ‘A’, presumably a short-hand reference to the title of the painting.
b.
Top right-hand corner is Adoration of the Magi circa 1582, also from the ground floor hall.2
c.
Second from top-left depicts the Flight into Egypt circa 1582–7, also from the ground floor hall.3 The study is inscribed ‘Darker | like the | [...]’.
d.
Second from top-right is a detail from The Madonna Saves Venice from the Plague of 1630 1673, by Pietro Negri (died 1679).4 This vast canvas is located on the stairs of the Scuola Grande. Turner has annotated the drawing ‘Negri Pieta Death’.
The study in the top left-hand corner represents The Annunciation circa 1582–7, from the ground floor hall1 Turner has annotated the sketch ‘A’, presumably a short-hand reference to the title of the painting.
b.
Top right-hand corner is Adoration of the Magi circa 1582, also from the ground floor hall.2
c.
Second from top-left depicts the Flight into Egypt circa 1582–7, also from the ground floor hall.3 The study is inscribed ‘Darker | like the | [...]’.
d.
Second from top-right is a detail from The Madonna Saves Venice from the Plague of 1630 1673, by Pietro Negri (died 1679).4 This vast canvas is located on the stairs of the Scuola Grande. Turner has annotated the drawing ‘Negri Pieta Death’.
Further sketches from the Scuola Grande and the Chiesa di San Rocco can be seen on folios 23 verso, 24 verso, 25 verso–26, 27, 29 verso–30 verso (D13902, D13904, D13906–D13907, D13909, D13914–D13916).
At the bottom this sheet is a rough, on-the-spot sketch of an unidentified landscape with clouds above distant hills. The inscription compares the view to the mountains in the background of Claude Lorrain’s painting, Landscape with Jacob and Laban and his Daughters circa 1654 (National Trust),5 which Turner had seen in the collection of his patron, Lord Egremont of Petworth House. Also on the page is a study of the back of an Italian peasant woman (or contandina) who is carrying a large bundle on her head. Cecilia Powell has identified the accompanying note in the bottom left-hand corner as referring to Senigallia, a town on the Adriatic Coast, just north-west of Ancona.6 She has argued that it must refer to the figure alone and not the landscape since, in another sketchbook, Turner refers to seeing ‘the first bit of Claude’, at Osimo to the south of Ancona (see Tate D14663; Turner Bequest CLXXVII 6), a later point than Senigallia on his journey to Rome. Further studies related to Senigallia can be seen on folios 2 verso and 28 verso (D13862 and D13912) and in the Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate D14610–D14611; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 63a–64). A similar reference to Lord Egremont’s Claude, meanwhile, can be found within a sketch of Frascati in the Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook (Tate D15347; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 28).
Nicola Moorby
March 2010
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice; and Sketches of a Landscape and Woman, ?Senigallia 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www