Joseph Mallord William Turner

In Lecture 3 as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, Turner presented a selection of methods for putting a square and various curved objects into perspective, and then moved on to discussing the architectural orders. Diagram 40 functions as an introduction of sorts to the Tuscan order, to be presented before he focused on the various parts, such the entablature, shaft, capital and pedestal. Turner writes that Tuscan is ‘the most simple of the orders in architecture’ and ‘according to Sir William Wootton’s simile it is labourer and therefore hope he will clear our road from the weedy limes which hitherto has encumbered our way that we can dispense with the plan and section and proceed by measures only’.1 The simile comes from Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639), poet, diplomat and afterwards Provost of Eton who provided a detailed description of the orders in The Elements of Architecture (1624).2 Turner habitually called him William or ‘Sir Billy’ and in his Verse Book (private collection) noted variants on the same dictum on the Tuscan order:

Turner presented a perspective construction of this Tuscan column in Diagram 41 (Tate D17060; Turner Bequest CXCV 90). See also Tate D17061 (Turner Bequest CXCV 91) for the preparatory drawing used to trace the diagram’s guiding lines.

Technical notes:

Peter Bower states that the sheet is Super Royal size Whatman paper made by William Balston and Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent. Bower writes that ‘all sheets in this batch have some streaking across the sheet, probably from a fault in the sizing’.1

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘89’ top left.