Joseph Mallord William Turner

Inscription by Turner: Notes on Ancient Greek Art

c.1808–11

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Windmill and Lock Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 117 × 87 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D07970
Turner Bequest CXIV 8

Catalogue entry

The top half of the page, turned vertically, is taken up with the following:
That the Greek whose paintings | above the Tympanums of the Pediment | [?has they ... replace] it by sculpture | in which case they only used the | [...] moulding that the sculpture | should not be hid from below.
Maurice Davies was unable to identify the source of these notes ‘on how the ancient Greeks intended their sculpture to be viewed’, but relates them to early drafts of Turner’s first Royal Academy perspective lecture,1 delivered in January 1811 (see the Introduction to the sketchbook).
1
Davies 1994, p.290.
Verso:
Blank, save for slight ink offsetting from the inscription on folio 9 recto opposite (D07971).

Matthew Imms
January 2012

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