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 Part of the Inscription on the Base of the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Sketch of Mountains 1819

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  • Inside back cover of sketchbook
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Part of the Inscription on the Base of the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Sketch of Mountains’ 1819 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back cover:
Part of the Inscription on the Base of the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Sketch of Mountains 1819
D40957
Turner Bequest
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[Mala...] | S to D [...]’ bottom centre and also Latin inscription (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The inscription on this page records the Latin lettering from the eastern face of the base of the column of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza Colonna, Rome.1 Turner’s transcription reads:
S[...] V Pont [...] | Columnam HANC | ABOMNI IMPIETATE | EXPVRGATVM | S PAVLO APOSTOLO | AEVIE EIVS TATVA | INAVRATA INSVMMO | VERTICE POSITADD | AM DLXXXIX PONTI
The original text reads:
SIXTVS V PONT MAX | COLVMNAM HANC | AB OMNI IMPIETATE | EXPVRGATAM | S PAVLO APOSTOLO | AENEA EIVS STATVA | INAVRATA IN SVMMO | VERTICE POSITA DD | A MDLXXXIX PONT IV
For a general description of the Column of Marcus Aurelius and further sketches see folio 87 (D16632).
Also on the page is a rough unidentified sketch of mountainous landscape.
1
First identified by Powell 1984, p.431.
Verso:
Back cover

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of the Inscription on the Base of the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza Colonna, Rome; and a Sketch of Mountains 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-part-of-the-inscription-on-the-base-of-the-column-of-marcus-r1138534, accessed 19 September 2024.