Cecilia Powell has identified the handwritten inscriptions at the top of this page as notes on paintings in the collection of the Palazzo Corsini. This fifteenth-century palace, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, stands in the Trastevere district near the Villa Farnesina, at the foot of the Janiculum Hill. Turner had listed it amongst his notes taken from Revd John Chetwode Eustace’s
A Classical Tour Through Italy, in the
Italian Guide Book sketchbook (see Tate
D13945; Turner Bequest CLXXII 8). Today it houses the National Gallery of Ancient Art, a collection largely comprised of works amassed by the Corsini family. Turner’s observations on the paintings include comments on
Ecce Homo by Guercino (1591–1666),
A Hare by Hans Hoffman (circa 1530–1591) formerly believed to be by Albrecht Dürer,
1 and
The Annunciation and
The Holy Family (or Madonna del Silenzio) which were then thought to be the work of Michelangelo, but were later attributed to Marcello Venusti (1512/15–1579) working from the Renaissance master’s drawings.
2 A study of the head of Christ from Guercino’s
Ecce Homo can still be seen in the top left-hand corner, despite being crossed through. Further and related notes on the paintings can be found in the
Route to Rome sketchbook (Tate
D13881; Turner Bequest CLXXI 13), whilst sketches of antique sculptures in the Palazzo Corsini can be found on folio 1 (
D15105). John Gage has described Turner’s notes as indicative of his interest in the prismatic principle of colour harmony in Old Master paintings.
3
