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 > Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Sketches at Paestum: The Temple of Athena (formerly known as the Temple of Ceres); and the Old City Walls with the Porta Sirena 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Sketches at Paestum: The Temple of Athena (formerly known as the Temple of Ceres); and the Old City Walls with the Porta Sirena’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
Two Sketches at Paestum: The Temple of Athena (formerly known as the Temple of Ceres); and the Old City Walls with the Porta Sirena 1819
D15970
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 30
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?5] Porto [?della] [?Luvenda]’
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘30’ top right and ‘245’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 30’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The two sketches on this page relate to Turner’s exploration of Paestum, the southernmost destination on his 1819 tour of Italy. On the left is a rough outline study of the western end of the Temple of Athena (formerly known as the Temple of Ceres), one of three celebrated fifth-century BC Greek ruins which stand in the plain between the Lattari mountains and the Tyrrenhian sea.1 For more detailed drawings see folio 32 verso–33 (D15971–D15972; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 30a–31). On the right-hand side, parallel with the edge of the page, is a sketch of the Porta Sirena (Siren’s Gate), the eastern entry point in the old city walls.2
For a more detailed discussion and other sketches of Paestum see folio 31 (D15968; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 29).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
First identified by Powell 1984, p.425.
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Sketches at Paestum: The Temple of Athena (formerly known as the Temple of Ceres); and the Old City Walls with the Porta Sirena 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2010, 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-two-sketches-at-paestum-the-temple-of-athena-formerly-known-r1137894, accessed 20 April 2024.