Ponte Molle, Rome

By the nineteenth century, exploration of the city’s environs had become as much part of the Roman experience as its architecture and monuments. Turner made a large number of studies of the landscape north of Rome, and many of the views within this sketchbook appear to relate to a single perambulation from Sant’Agnese fuori le mura to Ponte Sant’Angelo (for further information see the sketchbook introduction). The subject of this sketch is the Ponte Molle, an ancient crossing also known as the Ponte Milvio which stands on a bend of the River Tiber to the north of the city. The bridge carried the Via Flaminia across the Tiber into the centre of the city and hence was the entry and exit point for British tourists during the nineteenth century. Famous as the site of the deciding battle between Emperors Constantine and Maxentius in 312 AD, the bridge is recognisable from the four central arches spanning the river with two smaller arches at both ends, and an entrance tower on the northern end (right) which had been rebuilt in 1805.1 This sketch depicts the Ponte Molle from the east, looking downstream with the dome of St Peter’s and the heights of Monte Mario in the background beyond.

Turner’s forays into the Campagna in 1819 followed the tradition established during the seventeenth century by Claude Lorrain (circa 1600–82) and Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665). The two French masters had famously made a number of sketching trips along the banks of the Tiber north of the city; indeed the countryside between the Porta del Popolo and the Ponte Molle had popularly become known as the ‘Promenade de Poussin’. Following their lead, the Ponte Molle was one of a number of landmarks from the Campagna which had become an established artistic motif through the repertory of the ‘vedute’ tradition.2 As a young man, Turner had made a number of watercolour copies of images featuring the bridge with his contemporary, Thomas Girtin for Dr Monro’s Album of Italian Views 1794–6 (see Tate D36443–D36445; Turner Bequest CCCLXXIII 30–32). Further studies dating from 1819 can be found on folios 54, 58, 59 and 60 (D16476, D16483, D16484 and D16485; Turner Bequest CXC 60, 66, 67 and 68). It also features within more general panoramas of the Campagna in the St Peter’s sketchbook (see Tate D16217–D16226; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 35–40) and the Naples. Rome C. Studies sketchbook (see Tate D16123; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 35).