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 > Albano, Nemi, Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Frascati from the Villa Aldobrandini 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Frascati from the Villa Aldobrandini’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Verso:
Frascati from the Villa Aldobrandini 1819
D15354
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 31 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The panoramic view on this double-page spread depicts Frascati from the terrace of the Villa Aldobrandini (also known as the Villa Belvedere). Roughly outlined on this page is the Cathedral, the Basilica of St Peter the Apostle, with its two bell-towers flanking the Baroque façade, whilst the opposite page contains part of the villa in the foreground, see folio 30 verso (D15352). The composition of the sketch is similar to that of a drawing by James Hakewill, View from the Terrace of the Belvedere Villa at Frascati 1817 (British School at Rome Library) which Turner would certainly have known.1
Two other sketches drawn from a similar viewpoint can also be found on folios 30 and 30 verso–31 (D15351 and D15352–D15353).

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

1
Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A Catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.5.26, p.251 reproduced.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Frascati from the Villa Aldobrandini 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-frascati-from-the-villa-aldobrandini-r1132649, accessed 20 September 2024.