Joseph Mallord William Turner The Eastern End of the Forum, Rome, with the Temple of Castor and Pollux 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 53 Verso:
The Eastern End of the Forum, Rome, with the Temple of Castor and Pollux 1819
D15396
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 52 a
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 52 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Not] the first | Coln’ centre right-hand edge
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.538, as ‘Campo Vaccino; a slightly different view’.
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Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, p.256 note 106.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.125 note 65.
Like the preceding page, see folio 53 (D15395; Turner Bequest 52), this sketch shows the remains of the Temple of Castor and Pollux facing towards the east end of the Forum. Visible between the columns of the Temple are the campanile of Santa Francesca Romana on the left, and the arches of the Colosseum on the right. In the middle ground on the left is the Baroque outline of the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda but the surrounding portico of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina is obscured by trees. To the right, in the centre of the sketch, is the façade of the Church of Santi Cosama e Damiano and the dome and cupola of the Temple of Romulus, and beyond that, the three large barrel vaulted arches of the Basilica of Constantine. The composition of the view is similar to the one copied by Turner in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook after John ‘Warwick’ Smith, (see Tate D13966; Turner Bequest CLXXII 19). A related coloured study can be found in the Rome: C. Studies sketchbook (see Tate D16375; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 46).
In the foreground of the sketch Turner has also drawn a number of figures including a figure on a donkey or mule, and a man with a cow harnessed to a cart. For many centuries the Forum was known as the Campo Vaccino and was used as grazing for cattle, see folio 53 verso (D15396; Turner Bequest 52a). The area was more thoroughly excavated in the later part of the nineteenth century and the uneven ground seen in Turner’s drawing was cleared away and levelled off. On the far right-hand side of the page is an oblique view of the façade of the Church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. This building was demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century during the excavations.
For a general discussion of the Forum see folio 32 (D15355).
Nicola Moorby
May 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘The Eastern End of the Forum, Rome, with the Temple of Castor and Pollux 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