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 > Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?The Tomb of Cicero, outside of Formia; and Four Distant Views of Castellonorato 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Tomb of Cicero, outside of Formia; and Four Distant Views of Castellonorato’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
?The Tomb of Cicero, outside of Formia; and Four Distant Views of Castellonorato 1819
D15613
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 29
Pencil on white wove paper, 197 x 122 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘80’ and ‘250’ top right of second sketch from top, and ‘Woman green apron behind. Blue [?Dis] M. W B.’ bottom of middle sketch, and ‘C[...]’ bottom left of bottom sketch
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘281’ top right, ascending right-hand edge and ‘29’ top left, ascending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 29’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains a series of swift sketches representing views on the southward road to Naples, on the Tyrrhenian coast near Formia. The shaky, uncertain appearance of Turner’s draughtsmanship indicates that the artist was working from a moving carriage.1 Finberg suggested that the structure visible uppermost sketch is the so-called Tomb of Cicero, a monument found by the side of the Via Appia on the approach to Formia.2 Clearer studies of the ruin can be seen in the Vatican Fragments sketchbook (Tate D15160–D15161; Turner Bequest CLXXX 28a–9).
The subject of the remaining sketches on this page is Castellonorato, a hill-top village in the Arunci mountains, approximately four miles east of Formia. In four successively closer views Turner has depicted the distant village as seen from the Via Appia, with the prominent silhouette of the tower of Caetani fortress.
Amidst the landscape views, Turner has also sketched several local figures such as peasant women or contadine, carrying bundles and baskets on their heads. He has made notes on the bright colours of their costume.

Nicola Moorby
April 2010

1
Powell 1987, p.79.
2
Finberg 1909, p.543.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘?The Tomb of Cicero, outside of Formia; and Four Distant Views of Castellonorato 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-the-tomb-of-cicero-outside-of-formia-and-four-distant-views-r1138075, accessed 19 September 2024.