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 Distant View of Pozzuoli from Posillipo 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of Pozzuoli from Posillipo’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 82 Verso:
Distant View of Pozzuoli from Posillipo 1819
D16068
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 80 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch represents part of a view across the Bay of Pozzuoli, a picturesque stretch of coast to the west of Naples which forms part of the volcanic landscape of the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean or Burning Fields). The vista looks north-west across the Plain of Bagnoli,1 and Turner’s location appears to be from a viewpoint near the Grotto of Seiano, a Roman tunnel which led directly through the westernmost tip of the Posillipo Hill. Visible in the distance at the end of the curving sweep of the shoreline is the coastal town of Pozzuoli itself with the Bay of Baiae beyond. Similar prospects can be found on folio 70 (D16043; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 68), as well as in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (see Tate D15667; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 55a) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16105; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 17).

Nicola Moorby
August 2010

1
During the early twentieth century the Bagnoli plain was heavily industrialised and is today the site of a museum park known as ‘La Città della Scienza’ (City of Science).

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Distant View of Pozzuoli from Posillipo 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-distant-view-of-pozzuoli-from-posillipo-r1137992, accessed 26 April 2024.