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 Porta Appia, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Porta Appia, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Recto:
Porta Appia, Rome 1819
D15421
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 65
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘65’ top right and ‘301’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXII 65’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Cecilia Powell has identified the gate in this drawing as the Porta Appia, also known as the Porta San Sebastiano, a southern point in the Aurelian Walls through which the Via Appia passes out of the city towards the south.1 Although only an outline, the sketch clearly shows the large square marble towers topped by semi-circular brick structures with the arched gateway in between.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

1
Powell 1984, p.423.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Porta Appia, 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-porta-appia-rome-r1132716, accessed 25 April 2024.