Joseph Mallord William Turner

Florence from Piazza Cavour and Porta San Gallo

1819

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Rome and Florence Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 100 × 113 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D16584
Turner Bequest CXCI 59 a

Catalogue entry

Turner’s location for this distant view of the Duomo and tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence is the Piazza Cavour (present-day Piazza della Libertà) and the Porta San Gallo, the northernmost entry gate to the city. The structure dominating the right-hand side of the composition is a triumphal arch, erected during the early eighteenth century to celebrate the succession of Habsburg-Lorraine rule from the Medicis in 1737. Further sketches can be seen on folios 59 and 70 (D16583 and D16603).
Part of the page has been torn away, presumably before the sketch was made.

Nicola Moorby
January 2011

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right