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 > Pompeii, Amalfi, &c., Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Peristyle of the Villa of Diomides, Pompeii 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Peristyle of the Villa of Diomides, Pompeii’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Peristyle of the Villa of Diomides, Pompeii 1819
D15741
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘2’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner entered the archaeological site of Pompeii from the north-west along the Via dei Sepolcri (Street of the Tombs). The first set of ruins he came to therefore was the Villa of Diomedes, an opulent suburban house and garden first excavated during the years 1771–4, which stands on the right-hand side of the road just outside of the main city walls.1 A flight of steps leads directly from the street into the villa’s inner courtyard which is surrounded on four sides by the remnants of a fourteen columned porch or peristyle. This sketch depicts a view of the north side of the peristyle as seen from the corner beside the Via dei Sepolcri entrance. Further studies of the Villa of Diomedes can be seen on folios 3 verso–4 (D15742–D15743).
For a general discussion of Turner’s visit to Pompeii see the introduction to the sketchbook.
1
Further north-west on the site today is the Villa dei Misteri (Villa of Mysteries) but this was not discovered until the early twentieth century.
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
September 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Peristyle of the Villa of Diomides, Pompeii 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-peristyle-of-the-villa-of-diomides-pompeii-r1138207, accessed 19 April 2024.