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

Turner’s viewpoint for this sketch of Naples is the Ponte della Maddalena, a bridge which stood near the coastline to the east of the city (within the present-day Vittorio Emanuele III docks) and carried the Via Marinella over the River Sebeto. The view looks west across the bay towards the old port with the Castel Nuovo and the Mole lighthouse, whilst rising above on the right is the hill of Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa (Charterhouse) of San Martino, and beyond that the greater heights of Camaldoli. On the far right-hand side of the composition is an oblique view of the bridge itself whilst the small architectural feature along the wall is one of two eighteenth-century shrines which were placed along the crossing to Saints Gennaro and John Nepomuk. For related sketches see folios 48 verso–49 verso (D15649–D15651; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 46a–47a) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16113; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 25). Compare also a near-contemporaneous drawing by Turner’s friend and collaborator, James Hakewill (1778–1873), Naples from the Ponte della Maddalena 1816 (British School at Rome Library).1