Part of Turner’s route to Rome from Ancona took him through the passage of the Apennines between Tolentino and Foligno. The precise location of the four sketches on this page is unidentified but they probably represent views seen amidst the mountains after the town of Serravalle dei Chienti. Turner was already familiar with Eustace’s account of the terrain in
A Classical Tour Through Italy (see the
Italian Guide Book sketchbook, Tate
D13939; Turner Bequest CLXXII 4a):
above Serravalle, you reach the highest point of the mountains that intersect the Via Flaminia, and the road from Ancona to Rome. On the sides of the mountains you see villages and cottages, the greatest part of which look bleak and miserable, and in the midst of the plain, graze numerous flocks of sheep and cattle. There is, however, an appearance of loneliness about the place, that excites in the traveller’s mind, ideas of danger ... On quitting the plain you wind along the mountain with a lake on your right, and passing an eminence, begin to descend the declivity of Colfiorito represented more dangerous than it really is, because, though the precipice be steep and abrupt, the road is good and winding along the side of the hill descends on an easy slope. Through the deep dell that borders the road, a streamlet murmurs along, and gradually increasing becomes a river, which, in the plain below, falls into the Clitumnus. The little post of Casenuove forms the first stage of the descent, which continues with little or no intermission to the neighbourhood of Foligno.
1Like Eustace’s description, Turner’s sketches depict villages and buildings amidst the steep slopes of the mountains.
Nicola Moorby
November 2008
