During his 1819 stay in Rome, one of Turner’s most extensive sketching campaigns was the large number of pencil studies made from the sculpture collections of the Vatican Museums (for a general discussion, see the introduction to the sketchbook). This page contains sketches of objects found in the Museo Pio-Clementino. The studies are numbered from top left to bottom right:
a.
Cecilia Powell has identified the subject of the sketch at the top of the page as a sarcophagus with a relief depicting a battle between Greek and Centaurs.
1 Turner has continued the study of the line of the frieze so that the design links from the top right-hand edge to the left-hand edge on the second row (for other related sketches see below). The sarcophagus can be found in the Sala delle Muse (Gallery of the Muses).
2b.
The sketch on the right-hand side of the second row depicts the decorative relief from the top of the same sarcophagus (see above).
3c.
The sketches of the third row and the bottom left-hand corner depict other scenes from the same sarcophagus, depicting a battle between Greeks and Centaurs (see above).
4d.
The sketch at the bottom of the page depicts a bust or herm of Socrates,
5 also found within the Sala delle Muse.
6 Turner has transcribed the accompanying inscription as ‘¿WKPATHC’, which, as Powell has noted, approximates to the Greek name of the famous philosopher.
Nicola Moorby
November 2009
