Joseph Mallord William Turner

As Turner’s inscriptions indicate this sketch depicts a square in Turin called Piazza d’Italia, an area which has undergone various topographical changes since the early nineteenth century and is now part of the larger Piazza della Repubblica.1 The artist has made a detailed study of the architecture of the square including the dome and campanile of the Church of Santa Croce rising at the back.2 He did not have quite enough room on the sheet to complete the full height of the cupola of the church and therefore made a separate sketch of this detail on the far right-hand side. A small part of the composition depicting the nearby Porta Palatina spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 34 verso (D14211; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 33a).

For a list of further sketches of Turin see folio 12 (D14166; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 11).