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

This sketch depicts a distant view of Tivoli from the slopes of Colle Ripoli to the south of the town. Turner’s vista looks north across Tivoli towards the distant mountains rising beyond. Recognisable landmarks in the foreground and middle distance include, from right to left: the temples of the Acropolis, comprising the so-called Temple of Vesta and the adjacent campanile of the Church of San Giorgio (the so-called Temple of the Sibyl); Tivoli’s fifteenth-century castle, the Rocca Pia; the campanile of the Cathedral (Duomo) San Lorenzo; and the campanile of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, near the Villa d’Este. The drawing spills over slightly onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 72 (D15060; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 71). Related views can be seen on folios 70 verso, 72 verso–73 (D15059, D15061–D15062; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 70a, 71a–2).

At some point during the nineteenth-century survey of Turner’s sketchbooks this page missed being numbered and its original position was lost. Finberg was forced to place it at the end of his catalogue for this sketchbook and the leaves were rebound in an incorrect order. By reuniting the respective halves of the sketches on the recto and verso the sheet was eventually returned to its correct place but this led to Finberg’s numbering being out of step with the present arrangement, see the introduction to the sketchbook.