Joseph Mallord William Turner

a.
The sketch at the top represents part of a bas-relief depicting two figures with an urn. The object is found in the Sala a Croce Greca (Hall of the Greek Cross), positioned above the right-hand flight of stairs leading to the Galleria dei Candelabri on the upper level of the museum.
b.
Cecilia Powell has identified the subject of the lower sketch as the Sarcophagus of Helen, ¹ a tomb decorated with reliefs belonging to the mother of Constantine, which as Turner has noted beneath his drawing is made of red porphyry. The sarcophagus still stands in situ in the Sala a Croce Greca (Hall of the Greek Cross),2 and can be seen in a drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), Rome. Museum of the Vatican. Sala a croce greca looking to the Rotonda (British School at Rome Library), an illustration which was engraved for Hakewill’s Picturesque Tour of Italy, published 1818.3 Turner, who collaborated with Hakewill on other illustrations for this project, made a couple of similar general sketches of the Sala a Croce Greca, see folios 48 and 48 verso (D15196 and D15197; Turner Bequest CLXXX 47 and 47a). He also recorded the other large sarcophagus on the opposite side of this room, that belonging to Constantia, daughter of Constantine, see folio 47 (D15194; Turner Bequest CLXXX 46).