The subject of this sketch is Susa, a city in the Alps near the Franco-Italian border approximately thirty miles west of Turin. Turner’s viewpoint is to the right of the Porta Savoia (also known as the Porta Romana) and the Cathedral of San Giusto looking south-west towards the Arch of Augustus. This ninth-century monument was erected by the Emperor Augustus to commemorate the ‘Pax Augusta’, a peace treaty with Marcus Julius Cottius, leader of the tribes of the so-called Cottian Alps (the mountainous border between France and Italy).
1Related studies of the arch can be found on folio 36 verso (
D14048). Turner also mentioned it within the notes he made from the popular guidebook
A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace (see the
Italian Guide Book sketchbook, Tate
D13962; Turner Bequest CLXXII 16a). Further drawings dating from later European tours can also be found within other sketchbooks (see for example the
Fort Bard sketchbook, 1836, Tate
D29313; Turner Bequest CCXCIV 54).
For a more detailed discussion of Turner’s arrival in Italy and the related Alpine sketches see the Introduction to the sketchbook.
