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 13 Recto:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13955
Turner Bequest CLXXII 13
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 13’ bottom right
 
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:
pillars in the aisle De Spirito Santo. Strado | Toledo, the best chapel of St John the Evangelist | St Angelo. tomb of Marini the poet San | Severo. Sculptures by Corradini .. Del Parto of poet | Sannazarius Endowed it the Last Supper and | Micehal [sic] treading upon Satan. the portrait of a lady | who passionately loved Diomedes Caraffa Torre del | Greco & Hospital Conservatorii Schools – | di St Ivore. Lawyers. Congregazione della Croce | Ditto Della Sta Trinita dei Pelegrini relief | of Strangers. ditto of nobles, for the bashfull poor | whose pride will not solicit alms .. | Palazza Berrio | Venus and Adonis by Canova. Capo di Monte | Studii University. pictures Hercules | of Glycon. Farnese Royal Garden the | Farnesian Bull Toro Farnese Amphion | and Zethus binding dirce. from the B of Carra | calla. Chiaria along the beach to Mergyllina | to the hill of Posilipo to the Tomb of Virgil | Pietro de Steffano. 1526 says the urn ashes | stood on the centre supported by 9 marble pillars. | Rt of Anjou sent them to the Castel Niavo Nuovo | Statius says that Virgils tomb stood on | the shore at the foot of Vesuvius: Sbirri | assasins Virgil’s tomb and [?Alexan] Monte Posilipo | Grotto de Possilipo Via Puteolina through | Grotto of, right road Lago Agnano Grotto | del Cane sulphurous deadly vapour
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Naples and its environs.2 Some of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s sketchbooks, such as the Chiaia waterfront, Mergellina, Virgil’s tomb and the Grotto of Posillipo and Lake Agnano, see the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV) and Naples, Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII). A study of the antique sculpture, the Farnese Bull, can be found within the Naples, Paestum, Rome sketchbook (Tate D16015; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 52a).
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, p.395.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.336–82.

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-r1138776, accessed 23 April 2024.