Finberg later annotated his 1909
Inventory entry (‘View from S. Giorgio Maggiore. – “S. Stephano,” S. Maria della Salute, &c.’), adding ‘which it is
not CFB’ after ‘S. Stephano’.
1 The initials are those of Turner scholar C.F. Bell, who marked another copy with the same phrase.
2 With the page turned horizontally, there are two subjects, opposite ways up and in opposite directions.
Towards the gutter is a view north-westwards from off the west side of the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, looking across the Bacino to the domes of Santa Maria della Salute and the porch of the Dogana. To their right, on the far side of the Grand Canal, Turner has labelled a tall campanile ‘St Stephano’, and there seems no reason to query this, as Bell did. The less conspicuous, converging verticals to the right again may represent the spire of San Moisè; towards the right is the unmistakable profile of the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) to the north, with one of the domes of the Basilica below it.
The other way up, towards the outer edge, is a view from a similar position, east-south-east to the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, presenting the familiar elevation of the island’s church and associated buildings.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
