J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Forum, Rome, Looking towards the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Arch of Titus; and Details of the Temple of Castor and Pollux 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 24 Verso:
View of the Forum, Rome, Looking towards the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Arch of Titus; and Details of the Temple of Castor and Pollux 1819
D16200
Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 23 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?12]’ underneath sketch of capital on left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main sketch on this page represents a view of the Roman Forum looking east from the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Turner’s viewpoint is in front of the columns of the temple looking towards the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda (which incorporates the Temple of Faustina and Antoninus). He seems to have sketched in the second column over the top of the buildings in the background.
Alongside the left-hand foredge of the page, with the book held in portrait format, Turner has made a detailed study of the three Corinthian capitals of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. For a general discussion of the Forum, see the Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook (Tate D15355; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 32).

Nicola Moorby
September 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Forum, Rome, Looking towards the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Arch of Titus; and Details of the Temple of Castor and Pollux 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-of-the-forum-rome-looking-towards-the-temple-of-r1139711, accessed 29 March 2024.