Joseph Mallord William Turner

After a sustained period of travel along the east coast from Rimini, Turner’s route towards Rome turned inland at Ancona and began to follow a south-westerly course towards the Apennine Mountains. Many of the urban settlements in this part of Italy were built upon high ground and Turner made a number of sketches of the hilltop towns and cities he glimpsed from his carriage as he travelled through the landscape of the Marche region of Italy. The order of these drawings within the beginning of this sketchbook does not appear to follow a strict geographical sequence.

The subject of this sketch is not conclusively identified although it may depict a distant view of Loreto, with the city walls in the centre and the dome and campanile of the Santuario della Santa Casa on the far left. The same town also appears on folio 2 (D14655).