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 three objects, some or all of which were probably found in the Museo Chiaramonti. The studies are numbered from top left to bottom right:
a.
Cecilia Powell has identified the sketch in the top left-hand corner as a torso of a satyr,
1 found in the Galleria Lapidaria (Lapidary Gallery).
2b.
The sketch in the top right-hand corner is currently unidentified but appears to depict a grave altar or ash urn.
c.
Powell has identified the remaining sketch as the grave altar of Q. Gavius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria.
3 Formerly found in the Galleria Lapidaria,
4 today the altar can be seen in the South Portico of the Cortile Ottagono (also known as the Cortile Ottagonale, formerly the Cortile del Belvedere) in the Museo Pio-Clementino.
5 Turner has depicted the altar from an oblique three-quarter angle which shows the front as well as the relief panel on the right-hand side. He has also transcribed the accompanying Latin inscription which reads ‘DIS.MANIBVS’ [To the spirits of the departed] and ‘DI | Q.GAVI.MVSICI.VOLVMNIA | SANVARIA.CONIVCI.CARISSIMO | BENFDESEMERITO.FECIT.ET.SIBI.ET | LIBERTIS. LIBERTABVSQ. POSTERISQ: FORUM’.
Nicola Moorby
November 2009
