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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of an Italian Rocca 1820

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 65 Verso:
Study of an Italian Rocca 1820
D16757
Turner Bequest CXCII 64 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 98 x 128 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil with a Latin inscription (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch is one of three studies depicting the same castle and gateway, see also folios 66 and 66 verso (D16758 and D16759; Turner Bequest CXCII 65 and 65a). The subject is currently unidentified although it is likely to be an Italian rocca or fortress, probably from somewhere in the north of the country. In addition to recording the appearance of the building, Turner has made a separate study of the coat of arms from above the entrance of the fortified gate and has also annotated the page with a Latin inscription. The text, which includes the date ‘MDCLXXVI (1676), can be transcribed as follows: ‘NOCÆTER NITHSET CHATI[...] ^[?UMI]^ | MONUMENTV DICAVIT ANO | MDCLXXI’ and ‘RAN EAR DVCI VI ARCHITORISMO | [?OAREM] SLOTTES F VISCOLNO’.

Nicola Moorby
April 2013

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Study of an Italian Rocca 1820 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-study-of-an-italian-rocca-r1142657, accessed 28 March 2024.