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 > St Peter's Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View from the Janiculum Hill, Rome, Looking South-East from the Oak of Torquato Tasso 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View from the Janiculum Hill, Rome, Looking South-East from the Oak of Torquato Tasso’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
View from the Janiculum Hill, Rome, Looking South-East from the Oak of Torquato Tasso 1819
D16165
Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘12’ within sketch of steps on left
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVII 5’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made a number of sketches surveying Rome from the Janiculum Hill, a high ridge of ground to the west of the River Tiber which offered sweeping panoramas across the historic centre of the city. This sketch shows the view looking south-east across the hill towards the Church of San Pietro in Montorio. Turner’s viewpoint is the Teatro Alla Quercia del Tasso, a small open-air theatre at the northern tip of the Janiculum which takes its name from the nearby fabled oak of Torquato Tasso, see folio 2 (D16159). The terraced seating of the theatre ascends the slope to the right and the architectural feature in the centre is a decorative tablet or fountain also visible in another drawing (see Tate D16378; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 49). The view continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 4 verso (D16164). For a discussion of other views from the Janiculum see the entry for folio 2 (D16159).

Nicola Moorby
September 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View from the Janiculum Hill, Rome, Looking South-East from the Oak of Torquato Tasso 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-view-from-the-janiculum-hill-rome-looking-south-east-from-r1139674, accessed 19 April 2024.