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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Switzerland 1802 > Studies in the Louvre Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Commentary on Guercino's 'Mars and Venus' (Inscription by Turner) 1802

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Commentary on Guercino's 'Mars and Venus' (Inscription by Turner)’ 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
Commentary on Guercino’s ‘Mars and Venus’ (Inscription by Turner) 1802
D04320
Turner Bequest LXXII 36
Inscribed by Turner in black ink (see main catalogue entry), on white wove paper prepared with a reddish brown wash, 128 x 114 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘36’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXII–36’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For Guercino’s picture – thought by Turner to be by Domenichino – and Turner’s copy see folio 35 of this sketchbook (D04319). Turner’s remarks on it begun here are concluded on the verso of this leaf (D04321); a full transcription is given here for convenience:
Mars and Venus. Domenino [Finberg: Domenichino] | This is a good specimen of his | high color’d pictures but is not a good | composition as it is destitute of Grace | in Venus and dignity in Mars The Cupid | is trifling with a bow although the idea | is pretty the light is well managed tho | the shadow on Cupid’s shoulder for the head | of Venus is too small and the piece of white | at the Right of the Picture looks like Marble | but White is highly useful for it | gives the flesh a colour by its own | chalkiness | Upon a rich dark ground. | Venus – the ½ shadow cold yet inclining to | green produced by the first cold V [Finberg: U (or N)] over the ground. The vermillion or VR over which is rather feeble. This Brown over V in Shadow. The [continued on the verso, D04320] light with W Yellow perhaps too chalky, to | check which I take the piece of White to be | introduced, altho’ ineffectual owing to its position | the yellow drapery is produced by R. yellow over | the ground and glazed by Brown the Red the | same. The leaden colour’d drapery is unfortunate | as to tone and place, as it contributes to make the flesh too green.
Gage, without remarking the misattribution, notes that Turner’s comments show him already alert to colour contrast.

David Blayney Brown
July 2005

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Commentary on Guercino’s ‘Mars and Venus’ (Inscription by Turner) 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2005, 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-commentary-on-guercinos-mars-and-venus-inscription-by-turner-r1129729, accessed 20 September 2024.