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 > Vatican Fragments Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketch of a Tomb, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketch of a Tomb, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
Sketch of a Tomb, Rome 1819
D15151
Turner Bequest CLXXX 24
Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 101 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘24’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXX 24’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts an unidentified tomb or grave altar, from which Turner has transcribed the Latin inscription ‘CVEDENNIVSCE | QUIMODER [?...] TVS.ANTIO| [?mil CE].IN COH.IXPR | INQUA MILIT.ANNVIII | MISSVS.HONESTA [?Missum] | [?Recor...] . IM PEACTEVOR.[?AUS] | ARCITECTARMAMENT.IMP. | EVOC ANNXXIII | DONIS. mill.TARIB DCNAF | [?NISA] BOIVON ESPET | IMPDOMITIA.NOAO.CGERM’. The object may represent one of the numerous sculptural funerary monuments from the Vatican collections.

Nicola Moorby
November 2009

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketch of a Tomb, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2009, 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-sketch-of-a-tomb-rome-r1139563, accessed 24 April 2024.