Joseph Mallord William Turner

The sketches on this page relate to Turner’s painted recreation of the loggia on the right-hand side of Rome from the Vatican. Raffaelle Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia exhibited 1820 (Tate, N00503).1 They depict the fresco and stucco decorations on the third and fourth external piers of the Loggia of Raphael and comprise two distinct groups. The study on the left-hand side represents the lower section of the lateral side (right-hand, or northern, as you are looking at the interior wall) of the third external pilaster (i.e. the pillar between the second and third window from the end). The grotesque decorations featured here include shells and other marine life and the sketch is inscribed with colour notes ‘Y’ and ‘P’. On the right-hand side is a study of the lower section of the facing (front) side of the fourth external pilaster (i.e. the pillar between the third and fourth window from the end) which includes a winged figure seated on a sphere or globe.2 Turner has variously annotated the drawing ‘Co’, ‘Yellow | Shol Blue’, ‘Co’ and ‘B’. Both drawings are continued on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread with the lower section of the pilasters, see folio 18 verso (D14962).

The decorations on the lateral side of the third pilaster appear in Rome from the Vatican to the immediate right of the foreground figure of Raphael. The details from the bottom of the fourth external pilaster, meanwhile, can be seen on the far left-hand side of the composition, dominating the full height of the picture space. Further studies related to the evolution of Rome from the Vatican can be found on folios 13 verso–18 verso, 20–21 verso and 25–26 (D14955–D14962, D14964–D14966 and D14970–D14972), as well as an elaborate compositional drawing in pen and ink in the Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16368; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41). For a full description of the loggia and Turner’s sketches see folio 14 (D14956).

Verso:
Blank