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 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli, with the Piazza dell'Olmo and the Cathedral 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli, with the Piazza dell'Olmo and the Cathedral’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
View of Tivoli, with the Piazza dell’Olmo and the Cathedral 1819
D15499
Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 32
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 200 x 253 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘32’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIII 32’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s exploration of Tivoli included a large number of landscape sketches drawn from the river valley to the north. The subject of this drawing is a view looking east from the slopes below the town, at a point opposite the Santuario di Quintiliolo (Church of the Madonna of Quintiliolo). The substructures visible in the centre are those which support the Piazza dell’Olmo (present-day Piazza Domenico Tani), whilst to the right is the campanile of the Cathedral (Duomo) of San Lorenzo. Just visible at the left-hand tip of the promontory is a medieval watch-tower which stands above the valley, and the winding course of the River Aniene. A more detailed view can be found on folio 6 (D15472). Like many drawings within this sketchbook, the composition has been executed over a washed grey background. Turner has created highlights within the work by rubbing or lifting out the wash to reveal the white paper beneath, principally to delineate elements of the architecture and the foreground foliage.
Verso:
Blank, except for traces of grey watercolour wash

Nicola Moorby
February 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Tivoli, with the Piazza dell’Olmo and the Cathedral 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-view-of-tivoli-with-the-piazza-dellolmo-and-the-cathedral-r1137775, accessed 24 April 2024.