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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Old and New Cathedrals, Brescia, with the Tower of the Broletto Palace 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Recto:
The Old and New Cathedrals, Brescia, with the Tower of the Broletto Palace 1819
D14352
Turner Bequest CLXXV 19
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Plain corinthn’] bottom centre
Partial watermark ‘lee | 13’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘19’ top right and ‘300’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXV 19’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As recognised by Ian Warrell, the setting is Brescia, with the New Cathedral (Duomo Nuovo) and Old Cathedral (Duomo Vecchio) and the tower of the Broletto Palace.1 The viewpoint is the south-west corner of what is now the Piazza Paolo VI, with the simple Romanesque rotunda of the old cathedral on the right, dominated by the façade and drum of the Baroque new cathedral (then lacking its dome), with the slim, castellated tower of the civic Broletto Palace beyond.
In the foreground is the fountain which still stands outside the doorway of the old cathedral. Turner appears to have made a written note of the Corinthian order of the later building’s west front. The slight sketch on folio 18 recto (D14350) possibly shows Brescia; for the city in relation to Turner’s route east across northern Italy to Venice, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
Undated notes by Ian Warrell in Tate catalogue files.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Old and New Cathedrals, Brescia, with the Tower of the Broletto Palace 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-old-and-new-cathedrals-brescia-with-the-tower-of-the-r1186465, accessed 29 March 2024.