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 > Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell'Ovo, Pizzofalcone and Castel Sant'Elmo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell'Ovo, Pizzofalcone and Castel Sant'Elmo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell’Ovo, Pizzofalcone and Castel Sant’Elmo 1819
D15932
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ top right and ‘245’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Castel dell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg) in Naples is an historic fortress built on the islet of Megaride, a small piece of headland which juts into the sea in front of the port of Santa Lucia. This sketch depicts a view of that islet taken from a boat just offshore to the immediate south.1 Beyond the bulky outline of the castle is the main coastline with the small steep hill of Pizzofalcone, rising to the greater heights of Castel Sant’Elmo beyond. The small dome visible near the waterfront to the left of the Castel dell’Ovo is the Church of Crocelle a Chiatamone. For further views of Naples from the sea see folios 3 verso–12 (D15913–D15919 and D15922–D15930).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
Compare a painting by Gaspar Van Wittel (1652/3–1736), Naples from the sea, 1719 (Palazzo Pitti, Florence), reproduced in colour in Giuliano Briganti, Nicola Spinosa and Lindsay Stainton, In the Shadow of Vesuvius: Views of Naples from Baroque to Romanticism 1631–1830, exhibition catalogue, Accademia Italiana delle Arti e dell arti Applicate, London 1990, p.36.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Naples from the Sea, with Castel dell’Ovo, Pizzofalcone and Castel Sant’Elmo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-naples-from-the-sea-with-castel-dellovo-pizzofalcone-and-r1137856, accessed 16 April 2024.