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 The Fountain of the Ocean by Giambologna in the Boboli Gardens, Florence 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Fountain of the Ocean by Giambologna in the Boboli Gardens, Florence’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 68 Verso:
The Fountain of the Ocean by Giambologna in the Boboli Gardens, Florence 1819
D16600
Turner Bequest CXCI 68 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Cecilia Powell first identified, this sketch represents a study of the Fountain of the Ocean, 1576, by Giambologna (1529–1608) in the Boboli Gardens, Florence.1 The fountain sits in the centre of the Isolotto, a small island surrounded by water to the west of the gardens, and is comprised of a standing statue of Neptune and four reclining river gods. The sculpture on the far right-hand side is that of a Triton situated around the perimeter of the lake. For further studies of the Boboli Gardens see folio 50 verso (D16570).
Turner also made notes and sketches of Giambologna’s Fountain of Neptune in Bologna, see the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (Tate D13938; Turner Bequest CXCII 4) and Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate D14535–D14536; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 26a and b).2

Nicola Moorby
January 2011

1
Powell 1984, p.431.
2
Powell 1987, p.62.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Fountain of the Ocean by Giambologna in the Boboli Gardens, Florence 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2011, 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-fountain-of-the-ocean-by-giambologna-in-the-boboli-r1138493, accessed 19 April 2024.