Finberg later annotated his basic 1909
Inventory entry (‘A canal’): ‘B. of Sighs, from Canal, looking backwards twds S. Giorgio | Rio della Canonica’.
1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked another copy: ‘Rio della Canonica’.
2 Finberg published his amendment as ‘Bridge of Sighs from the Rio di Palazzo’.
3 With the page turned horizontally, the view is south-south-east down the Rio del Palazzo from the Ponte della Canonica, towards the elevated Bridge of Sighs, with slight indications in the distance of the Ponte della Paglia, and buildings on the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino beyond.
On the left, the balustrade flanks steps at right-angles to the main part of the bridge, down to a short quay leading to what is now the Museo Diocesano on the near side of the Bridge of Sighs. The right-hand half is taken up with the cliff-like stone bulk of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), with selective indications of aspects of its complex, multi-storey fenestration and heavy rustication.
Folios 76 verso–77 recto (
D32412–D32413) show the Bridge of Sighs from below, in what is perhaps the first drawing Turner made in Venice on this visit; see under
D32412 for further discussion. Compare also, among several studies in the contemporary
Venice; Passau to Würzburg sketchbook, Tate
D31310 and
D31388 (Turner Bequest CCCX 18, 57), which may be among the last.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
