Turner circled Lake Albano and made sketches from several different points. The subject and viewpoint for the five sketches on this page is the monastery of Palazzola, a medieval church on the eastern perimeter of the lake which had been built upon the ruins of an Roman ancient villa (today it is a retreat and summer residence used by the Venerable English College). In the third sketch from the top, just beneath the monastery, can be seen the semi-pyramidal structure of a large ancient tomb carved into the slopes of the adjacent gardens.
1 This sepulchre, which can still be seen today, is decorated with fasces (bundles of rods symbolising power) and probably dates from the second century BC, and may be that of Consul Cornelius Scipio Hispalus.
2 It had already been depicted by Piranesi in his
Antichità d’Albano e di Castel Gandolfo 1764,
3 and in a coloured aquatint by John Izard Middleton, published in
Grecian Remains in Italy: A Description of Cyclopian Walls and of Roman Antiquities, with Topographical and Picturesque Views of Ancient Latium, London 1812.
4The two sketches at the bottom of the page suggest that Turner was working at the end of the day as the light was fading. The small drawing of Castel Gandolfo shows the dark silhouette of the town in shadow, which would be consistent with the sun setting in the west beyond. Meanwhile the sketch of Albano beneath appears to show the sun low in the sky with the reflection on the water below.
For a full discussion of Turner’s depictions of Lake Albano see folio 3 verso (
D15301) and the general introduction to the sketchbook.
