J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13943
Turner Bequest CLXXII 7
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
a Fountain in the middle near 3 Columns | supposed to be part of the Curia | Via Sacra. temple of Antoninus | and Peace to the arch of Titus through | which a little to the left .. Theatre Vespasian | Colisseum – Meta Sudans passes | near the arch of Constantine | Palatine Mount, Circus Maximus. | now subterranean.. a hall of large dimensions | Aventine Mount view of Tiber and Fields | Prati del popolo Romano. the Tomb of Caius Cestus – Lugentis campi fields of death | Baths of Caracalla ^1840 1476^ Mon Coeliolus and | Coelius + thermae of Titus Diocletian | Temples to Apollo and Escalupius the Genii | tutelares .. Vallis Caelimontana St Stephano | in rotunda. Coelian Mt Suburra | Hercules found in Caracalla. Laocoon in Titus | Escaline Mt nr Porta Maggiore. Minerva Med | Viminal and Quirinal. Mt Pincio .Agustus’s | tomb. Campo Martius theatre of Marcellus | Portico of Octavia the Panthenon | Column of Trajan and Antoninus Ponte Elius | St Angelo Ripa Grand Temple of Vesta | Fortunas Virils Faunus Basilica Hall of Justa | Curiae palaces of Senators. Tomb of Cecilia Metella | ctd
These notes relate to various passages from volume I of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s various Roman sketchboks, for example the Arches of Titus and Constantine, the Tombs of Caius Cestus and Cecila Metella, the Baths of Caracalla, the Temple of Minerva Medica, the Pantheon and the Column of Trajan.
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.384–5.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.I, pp.373–420.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138764, accessed 23 April 2024.