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 > Rome and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Frescoes from the Chiostro dei Morti of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata, Florence 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Frescoes from the Chiostro dei Morti of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata, Florence’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
Studies of Frescoes from the Chiostro dei Morti of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata, Florence 1819
D16552
Turner Bequest CXCI 36
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil with colour notes (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘36’ top right, ascending right-hand edge [very faint]
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 36’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains studies of frescoes from the Chiostro dei Morti (Cloister of the Dead, also sometimes known as the Chiostro Grande), in the Basilica delle Santissima Annunziata (Church of the Blessed Annunciation), Florence. As Cecilia Powell has comprehensively identified, these largely relate to a series of early seventeenth-century lunette scenes illustrating the history of the Servite Order.1 They comprise, from top to bottom:
a.
A rough sketch of the famous fresco by Andrea del Sarto (1486–1531), Madonna del Sacco, 1525. The sketch is variously transcribed with colour notes ‘Rose’, ‘P’, ‘White’, ‘Green Green’, ‘Blue | Purple’, ‘Red’, ‘Green’ and ‘Purple’. The painting is found in a lunette above the door of the cloister and Turner has delineated the semi-circular format of the image.
b.
The second row contains four distinct figure studies from three different scenes. The left-hand seated figure is taken from Matteo Rosselli (1578–1650), Alessandro IIII ... approvando l’ordine de’Servi and is annotated with colour notes ‘Green’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Purple [...] | Red Hat W Feathers’, ‘Purple’, ‘Purple Bl’, ‘Yell’, ‘MR’.2 The two central male figures are from Bernardino Pocetti (1548–1612), Il Beato Buonagiunta Manetti Generale predetta ... la sua vicina morte and are respectively inscribed ‘B’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Re’, ‘G’, ‘Red [?Brown]’, and ‘Blue Cap’, ‘Red B’.3 Finally the bust of a female on the far right-hand side appears to be taken from Ventura Salimbeni (1568–1613), Chiarissimo Falconieri a preghiere.
c.
The third row depicts Poccetti’s La Religione de Servi ... hebbe il suo princ. ... MCCXXXIII, and is inscribed ‘G O’, ‘Red SBM’, ‘RP Yell’, ‘Light’, ‘OGR’, ‘Ro’, ‘Green’.4
d.
The bottom details represent the central group in Poccetti’s Il Beato Filippo Benizi ... ridusse ... due cattive Donne a religiosa vita, and are annotated ‘Gr’, ‘R’, ‘OR’, ‘BL’.5
The frescoes in the Cloister of the Dead are no longer fully extant and are rarely given much attention by visitors to the basilica. As Powell has discussed however, they were greatly admired during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example by Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), who made similar notes and sketches during a visit to Florence in 1752.6 Like Reynolds, Turner selected certain elements from the images, generally focusing on the most colourful figures and often noting the juxtaposition of complementary hues.7
Further studies relating to Santissima Annunziata can be found on folio 35 verso (D16551).

Nicola Moorby
December 2010

1
Powell 1984, p.429–30 and Powell 1987, pp.99–101.
2
Compare an engraving of the fresco in Powell 1987, p.99, pl.106.
3
Compare ibid., pl.107.
4
Compare ibid., pl.108.
5
Compare ibid., pl.109.
6
Ibid., pp.99–101. See Reynolds’s 1752 sketchbook (British Museum), described at http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=725557&partid=1&IdNum=1859%2c0514.305&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database%2fmuseum_no__provenance_search.aspx.
7
Ibid., p.101.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Studies of Frescoes from the Chiostro dei Morti of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata, Florence 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-studies-of-frescoes-from-the-chiostro-dei-morti-of-the-r1138445, accessed 09 May 2024.