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 Column of Marcus Aurelius and the Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Mountainous Scene 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Column of Marcus Aurelius and the Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Mountainous Scene’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 82 Recto:
The Column of Marcus Aurelius and the Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Mountainous Scene 1819
D16624
Turner Bequest CXCI 82
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘19’ within column, and ‘[?Flo...]’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 82’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains two distinct sketches. At the bottom of the page is a rough unidentified drawing of a road leading toward hills or mountains. Meanwhile, the clearer and more detailed study at the top represents the Column of Marcus Aurelius, an ancient Roman triumphal column which stands in the Piazza Colonna in Rome.1 The artist’s viewpoint is from the eastern corner of the piazza looking towards the Palazzo Chigi (right), the Palazzo Montecitorio (centre) and the Palazzo del Vicegerente (left). The meaning of Turner’s inscription ‘19’ on the column itself is unclear, although it perhaps mistakenly refers to the number of stages of bas-reliefs spiralling surrounding the shaft (actually twenty). Further sketches and notes pertaining to the monument can be found on folios 13, 87, 89, 90 and the inside back cover (D16508, D16632, D16635, D16637 and D40957).

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

1
First identified by Powell 1984, p.431.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Column of Marcus Aurelius and the Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Mountainous Scene 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-column-of-marcus-aurelius-and-the-piazza-colonna-rome-r1138517, accessed 19 April 2024.