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 Two Views of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella and Two Views of the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome 1819

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Views of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella and Two Views of the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 48 Recto:
Two Views of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella and Two Views of the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome 1819
D15386
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 48
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Sheep’ bottom right of top right sketch
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘48’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 48’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a number of sketches of the Via Appia Antica, the ancient Roman thoroughfare from Rome to Brindisi in south-east Italy. Known as ‘the Queen of Roads’, the Appian Way was famous for its characteristic straightness and the numerous tombs and catacombs lining the route. This page contains four distinct sketches. The studies across the bottom and in the top left-hand corner depict the Claudian Aqueduct seen from the Via Appia Antica. These surviving sections of arches in the Roman campagna with distant mountains beyond presented a popular motif for artists. The remaining two drawings in the middle and in the top right-hand corner are views of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, a large circular mausoleum and one of Rome’s most celebrated ancient monuments. Turner made numerous studies of the tomb, see folio 47 (D15384) and his viewpoint here records the structure as seen from the east. The larger study exactly repeats the composition of James Hakewill’s drawing, Tomb of Cecilia Metella, on the Via Appia,1 upon which Turner based his 1818 watercolour for the Picturesque Tour in Italy, engraved by John Byrne and published in 1819.2

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, 3.27, p.208 reproduced.
2
Tomb of Cecilia Metella, watercolour, 1818 (private collection), see Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, no.709), engraved by John Byrne and published 1819, see W[illiam] G[eorge] Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1908, vol.I, no.153.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Two Views of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella and Two Views of the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome 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-two-views-of-the-tomb-of-cecilia-metella-and-two-views-of-r1132681, accessed 26 April 2024.