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 > Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ponte dell'Acquoria, Tivoli 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Ponte dell'Acquoria, Tivoli’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Verso:
Ponte dell’Acquoria, Tivoli 1819
D15037
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 59 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts a view looking west down the river valley to the north of Tivoli. At the bottom of the composition is the Ponte dell’Acquoria (Bridge of the Golden Water), a Roman crossing which carried the ancient Via Tiburtina across the River Aniene. As Turner’s sketch shows, the bridge was comprised of a single surviving stone arch with a temporary wooden structure crossing the remaining piers.1 The area is now dominated by an electrical power plant.
Alternative studies of the bridge can be seen on folio 46 (D15012) and in the Tivoli sketchbook (Tate D15508; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 41).

Nicola Moorby
February 2010

1
Compare a print by Johann Christian Reinhart (1761–1847), Ponte Acquoreo a Tivoli, 1798, see: http://www.galerie-fach.de/produkt/2009_96/kd12796.html, accessed February 2010.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Ponte dell’Acquoria, Tivoli 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2010, 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-ponte-dellacquoria-tivoli-r1137671, accessed 24 April 2024.