Joseph Mallord William Turner

In addition to using the Vatican Fragments sketchbook to record details of art and architecture in Rome, Turner also appears to have employed it on several occasions during his journey to or from Naples. This page contains several landscape views from the route between the two cities on the Via Appia. The rough nature of Turner’s draughtsmanship and the way in which the artist has crammed the successive drawings onto a single page, suggests that they must have been executed at speed, possibly from a moving carriage.

The sketch at the top of the page represents a view of the town and lake of Nemi seen from the southern shore near Genzano. The drawing continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 30 (D15161; Turner Bequest CLXXX 29). Related sketches can be found on folios 1 verso, 6, 26 verso, 75 verso, 79 verso, 80 verso and 82 (D15106, D15113, D15154, D15236, D15244, D15246 and D15249; Turner Bequest CLXXX 1a, 5, 25a, 74a, 78a, 79a and 81).

Cecilia Powell has suggested that the central sketch depicts the Angevine-Aragonese castle at Gaeta.1 However, comparison with another drawing in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15602; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 23a) indicates that it is in fact the castle (Castello Baronale) at Fondi, a town on the Via Appia approximately halfway between Rome and Naples.2 To the left of this drawing Turner has made a swift study of three figures wearing large hats.

The subject of the sketch at the bottom of the page is the so-called Tomb of Cicero, a large mausoleum on the Via Appia, one mile west of Formia. Comprised of a square base upon which is set a crumbling cone, it is popularly believed to be the tomb of the Roman orator and philosopher, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), but despite the fact that he is documented as meeting his death in Formia, there is no concrete evidence to support this. A villa connected with him is also believed to have stood in the vicinity, see the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15609–D15610; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 27–27a). Turner’s view continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 30 (D15161; Turner Bequest CLXXX 29). See also folios 1 verso (D15106; Turner Bequest CLXXX 1a), and a near-contemporaneous drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), Tomb of Cicero nr Mola di Gaeta, ?1817 (British School at Rome Library).3 Turner had listed the monument amongst his notes taken from Revd John Chetwode Eustace’s A Classical Tour Through Italy, and had furthermore made a thumbnail pen-and-ink copy of a view after John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831), see the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (Tate D13954 and D13968; Turner Bequest CLXXII 12a and 20). Cicero was obviously a historical figure who interested him. He later produced a finished oil painting, Cicero at his Villa exhibited 1839 (private collection).4