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 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13939
Turner Bequest CLXXII 4 a
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
Palazzo .Communita .. Palace of Communeor | Town-Hall Palazzo dei Mercanti Merchant | Hall. River Vomano Ascoli | Loretto 14. M – Camurano between | on a hill. Monte Gomero Abby Mte Santo | Macerata to the West Recanati Mt Fiori | and the Adriatic from the ramparts | Santa Casa by Bramante. Gateway | towards Rome and aqueduct towards Recanati | Sambucheto. by the river the remains of an | Amphitheatre Macerata an arch | Tollentino a singular Gate river Chienti | Belforte an Old Fortress Bridge and pass | Valcimara. rocky to Ponte de la Trave | over the Chienti Seravalle in deep dell | on a hill an old Castle river Potentia | Colfiorito. a Declivity and Lake. | Casenouve. the first post descending the | Appenines which continues to Foligno – | a grotto about 3 miles .. – Bevagna ancient | Mevania. River Clitumnus Le Vene | 1 Post northside an ancient temple and | springs of the Clitumnus appellation Jupiter | C.. 4 Cor. Columns 2 Pilasters Cella and crypt | Spoleto and inscription over an ancient arch | of checking Hannibal. two gates piers of a | Bridge ruins of a Theatre and Temple to | Concord
These notes relate to various passages from volume I of Eustace’s text and condense the author’s description of the southward journey between Ancona to Spoleto.2 Turner followed a similar itinerary in 1819 and visited many of the places highlighted in these notes such as the Holy House (Santa Casa) at Loreto, Belforte, Seravalle and the Temple of Clitumnus (see Ancona to Rome sketchbook, Tate, Turner Bequest CLXXVII). For a general discussion of Turner’s study of Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.381–2.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.1, pp.296–324.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, 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-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138760, accessed 25 April 2024.