Joseph Mallord William Turner

Lecture Diagram 14: The Terminology of Perspective of Joseph Moxon

c.1810

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
I. Numbered Perspective Diagrams
Medium
Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 482 x 600 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D17028
Turner Bequest CXCV 58

Display caption

Turner’s second lecture was devoted to the terms and procedures of standard perspective. He included terminology used by now lesser known writers, such as the English hydographer and mathematician Joseph Moxon. Turner owned a copy of his manual Perspective, or Perspective Made Easie, published about 1670, which included pop-up illustrations.

Gallery label, August 2004

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Catalogue entry

Diagram 14 is likely to be associated with Turner’s discussion, in Lecture 2 as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, of the terminology of the discipline. It is headed ‘MOXON’ and claims to show the importance attached by the author to ‘ichnography’, but as Maurice Davies points out, so such diagram is to be found in Joseph Moxon’s Practical Perspective (1670).1 Apparently Turner’s own design, it illustrates a method due to the elder Thomas Malton; see his Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theory and Paractice on the True Principles of Dr Brook Taylor, 1775, pp.48–9.
1
Davies 1994, p.299 note 41. See Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BL MS L folio 3. For earlier versions of material, see D folio 2 verso and E folio 4.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower states that the sheet is Royal size Whatman paper made by William Balston and Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent. He writes that ‘all the group of papers with 1794 dates in the watermark show considerable process dirt and poor formation’. He attributes the lack of quality control to James Whatman’s stroke and the change of ownership at the mill.1
1
Notes in tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘60’ bottom left.

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Perspective Method for a Cube, after Pietro Accolti’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Perspective Method for a Cube, after Pietro Accolti

c.1809
View by appointment D07432
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Giulio Troili’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Giulio Troili

c.1809
View by appointment D07449
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Diagrams, after Pietro Accolti’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Perspective Diagrams, after Pietro Accolti

c.1809
View by appointment D07489
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Diagrams, after Salomon de Caus’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Perspective Diagrams, after Salomon de Caus

c.1809
View by appointment D07359
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Cuboid in Perspective, after Jean Cousin’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Cuboid in Perspective, after Jean Cousin

c.1809
View by appointment D07443
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Diagram, after Heinrich Lautensack’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Perspective Diagram, after Heinrich Lautensack

c.1809
View by appointment D07431
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagrams of a Cube and Squares Projected in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagrams of a Cube and Squares Projected in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus

c.1809
View by appointment D07362
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Perspective Method for a Cube, after Guidobaldo del Monte’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Perspective Method for a Cube, after Guidobaldo del Monte

c.1809
View by appointment D07427
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagrams: A Method of Putting a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus; with Bibliographical Notes on Perspective Sources’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagrams: A Method of Putting a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus; with Bibliographical Notes on Perspective Sources

c.1809
View by appointment D07367
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus

c.1809
View by appointment D07450
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagrams of a Cube in Perspective and a Pantograph, from an Unidentified Source’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagrams of a Cube in Perspective and a Pantograph, from an Unidentified Source

c.1809
View by appointment D07471
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of an Open Cube in Perspective, after Heinrich Lautensack’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of an Open Cube in Perspective, after Heinrich Lautensack

c.1809
View by appointment D07469
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Versions of a Diagram Relating to Placing a Square in Perspective, and a Diagram of a Building, after Viator (Jean Pélerin)’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Versions of a Diagram Relating to Placing a Square in Perspective, and a Diagram of a Building, after Viator (Jean Pélerin)

c.1809
View by appointment D07429
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Perspective Method for a Circle, after Guidobaldo del Monte’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Perspective Method for a Circle, after Guidobaldo del Monte

c.1809
View by appointment D07428
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Quadrilateral Plane in Perspective, Probably after Giulio Troili’ c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of a Quadrilateral Plane in Perspective, Probably after Giulio Troili

c.1809
View by appointment D07430