Joseph Mallord William Turner Part of the Façade of St Peter's, Rome, with the Arco delle Campane 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Part of the Façade of St Peter's, Rome, with the Arco delle Campane
1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of the Façade of St Peter’s, Rome, with the Arco delle Campane 1819
D16332
Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 6
Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 6
Gouache, pencil and watercolour on white wove ‘Valleyfield’ paper, 368 x 231 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 6’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (258).
1934
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, March 1934–May 1937 (no catalogue).
1958
Eight Centuries of Landscape and Natural History in European Water-colour 1180 – 1920, British Museum, London, April 1958 (no number).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November 1963, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March 1964, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April 1964, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May 1964, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (19, reproduced, as ‘Rome, St. Peter’s and the Entrance to the Via della Sagrestia’).
1966
Adelaide Festival of Arts: Special Exhibitions at the National Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, March–April 1966 (6).
1970
Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels, November 1970–January 1971 (16, as ‘Rome: St. Pierre et l’entrée de la Via della Sagrestia’).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (68, reproduced, as ‘Rome: The Portico of St Peter’s with the entrance to the Via della Sagrestia’).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (29, reproduced and in colour, as ‘De zuilengang van de St. Pieter in Rome’).
1979
Exposicion del Gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, August–September 1979 (BM 27, reproduced).
1979
Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, October[–?November] 1979 (BM 27, reproduced in colour).
1980
Turner and the Sublime, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, November 1980–January 1981, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, February–April 1981, British Museum, London, May–September 1981 (16, reproduced).
1987
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue).
1988
Turner & Architecture, Tate Gallery, London, March–July 1988 (31).
1992
Turner as Professor: The Artist and Linear Perspective, Tate Gallery, London, October 1992–January 1993 (96, reproduced).
1998
Italy in the Age of Turner: “The Garden of the World”, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, March–May 1998 (27, reproduced in colour).
2009
Turner és Itália, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, July–October 2009 (no number, reproduced in colour).
References
1879
?Philip Gilbert Hamerton, The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A., London 1879, p.186.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, no.258, pp.378, 622, as ‘The Portico of St Peter’s’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.562, as ‘The Portico of St. Peter’s. Water colour. 258, N.G.’.
1920
D[ugald] S[utherland] MacColl, National Gallery, Millbank: Catalogue: Turner Collection, London 1920, p.87.
1944
Laurence Binyon, English Water-Colours, 2nd edition, revised by Basil Gray, London 1944, p.116.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 1963, no.19, pp.10, 17, reproduced [p.32], as ‘Rome, St. Peter’s and the Entrance to the Via della Sagrestia’.
1970
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels 1970, no.16, p.17, as ‘‘Rome: St. Pierre et l’entrée de la Via della Sagrestia’.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, British Museum, London 1975, no.68 p.54, reproduced, as ‘Rome: The Portico of St Peter’s with the entrance to the Via della Sagrestia’.
1978
John Sillevis, Nini Jonker and Hripsimé Visser, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 1978, no.29, reproduced p.63 and in colour, p.87, as ‘De zuilengang van de St. Pieter in Rome’.
1979
John Gage, Exposicion del gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City 1979, no.28 reproduced [p.31], as ‘Roma, pórtico de San Pedro’.
1979
John Gage and Ana T. de Gradowska, Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela 1979, no.BM 27, reproduced in colour [p.36], as ‘Roma, Portico de San Pedro’.
1980
Andrew Wilton, Turner and the Sublime, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 1980, no.16, reproduced, pp.115 under no.17, [165] under no.82, as ‘Rome: The Portico of St Peter’s with the Entrance to the Via Sagrestia’.
1983
Adele M. Holcomb, ‘Exhibition Review: “Turner and the Sublime” ’, Turner Studies, vol.3, no.1, Summer 1983, p.52.
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.123, 472 note 8.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.37 note 7, 50, reproduced p.[45], colour plate 7, as ‘The entrance to the Via della Sagrestia’.
1987
Andrew Wilton, Turner in his Time, London 1987, p.122, reproduced p.123 pl.174, as ‘Rome: the Portico of St Peter’s and the Via della Sagrestia’.
1992
Maurice Davies, Turner as Professor: The Artist and Linear Perspective, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1992, pp.74, 76, no.96 reproduced, as ‘The Portico of St Peter’s, Rome’.
1998
Cecilia Powell, Italy in the Age of Turner: “The Garden of the World”, exhibition catalogue, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 1998, p.50, no.27 reproduced in colour, as ‘The entrance to the via della Sagrestia, Rome’.
2002
Stendhal, Viaggi in Italia illustrati dai Pittori del Romanticismo: Passeggiate Romane, Paris and Florence 2002, reproduced in colour, p.83, as ‘Il porticato di San Pietro’.
2006
Andrew Wilton, Turner in his Time, revised ed., London 2006, p.123 reproduced fig.174, as ‘Rome: the Portico of St Peter’s and the Via della Sagrestia’.
2009
Christopher Baker and James Hamilton, Turner és Itália, exhibition catalogue, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest 2009, p.55, reproduced in colour, p.54, fig.56.
The subject of this coloured sketch is the southern (left-hand) end of the façade of St Peter’s in Rome. The great arched opening, known as the Arco delle Campane (Arch of the Bells), stands beneath the great bell of the basilica and one of two clocks designed by Valadier which crown the front of the basilica. Leading through to the Via della Sagrestia, today it is one of three main entrances to the Vatican and is permanently guarded by Swiss Guards. To the left of the composition can be seen part of the Charlemagne Wing of Bernini’s colonnade, whilst on the right are the steps leading to the doors of the basilica. A sketch depicting the view looking away from the Arco delle Campane in the opposite direction, east across St Peter’s Square, can be found in the St Peter’s sketchbook (see Tate D16227; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 40a).
The composition of Turner’s watercolour is designed to convey a sense of overwhelming size and grandeur symbolising, not only the physical presence of St Peter’s, but also the power and majesty of Rome and the Catholic church.1 The perceived immensity of the building is enhanced by the presence of the three tiny figures in the foreground, whom Cecilia Powell has described as a ‘lone cleric approaching St Peter’s, a minute slip of a contadina and a solitary loafer on its steps’.2 Andrew Wilton has argued that despite the dramatic ‘Piranesian’ sense of scale and the stylistic similarities to Italian souvenir views by artists such as Giovanni Volpato (1723–1803) or Carlo Lebruzzi (1748–1817), Turner’s vision of St Peter’s is entirely original and fresh.3 Like many drawings within this sketchbook, the view has been executed over a washed grey background which the artist has further worked up with watercolour and gouache.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by unknown hands in pencil ‘6’ centre and ‘CLXXXIX.6 bottom right, and stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 6’ bottom centre.
Nicola Moorby
October 2009
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of the Façade of St Peter’s, Rome, with the Arco delle Campane 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www