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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner A View of Rome from the Via Appia Antica; and Three Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Verso:
A View of Rome from the Via Appia Antica; and Three Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica 1819
D15383
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 46 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains three variant views of the so-called Temple of Minerva Medica, an ancient circular ruin found near the Porta Maggiore in the eastern quarter of Rome. Today the temple stands between the railway tracks leading into Termini station and the present-day via Giovanni Giolotti. For further views see folio 56 (D15401; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 55). In the bottom right-hand corner, the artist has added four male figures contemplating the remains.
Additionally on this page there is a record of the Roman skyline as seen from the Via Appia Antica to the south-east of the city, probably from a point near the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, see folio 47 (D15384). Identifiable landmarks include, from left to right: the Capitoline Hill; the Aurelian Walls with the two towers of the Porta San Sebastiano; the Porta Latina; the twin domes and obelisk of Santa Maria Maggiore; the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano and the adjacent gate of the Porta San Giovanni to the right; arches of part of the ruined Claudian Aqueduct with the ruins of the Temple of Minerva Medica visible beyond on the right.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘A View of Rome from the Via Appia Antica; and Three Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica 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-a-view-of-rome-from-the-via-appia-antica-and-three-sketches-r1132678, accessed 29 March 2024.