Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Casino di Raffaello, near the Gardens of the Villa Borghese, Rome

1819

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
St Peter’s Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 114 × 189 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D16234
Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 44

Catalogue entry

A sketch of the Casino di Raffaello near the gardens of the Villa Borghese, see folio 44 verso (D16233; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 43a). Turner’s viewpoint depicts a characteristic view of the Casino, the eastern façade with the arched loggia of the ground floor and St Peter’s in the background on the right.1 On the left-hand side of the building, in between the outer wall and the trees, is a small mark which probably represents one of the two towers of the Villa Medici. For some reason, the artist did not fully sketch in the rest of the building. The view continues on part of an underlying sheet within the sketchbook, see folio 46 (D16236; Turner Bequest 45). Turner has half-folded the page back in order to extend the breath of the view onto the paper beneath.
The Casino di Raffaello was a popular subject for artists during the nineteenth century. Similar views to Turner’s depiction include drawings by Raymond Balze (1818–1909), Casino de Raphael (Louvre, Paris),2 Charles Joseph Lecointe (1824–86), Veduta della Casina di Raffaello a Villa Borghese (Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia),3 two unattributed paintings in the collection of the Villa Borghese,4 and another dating from c.1814 in the Museo di Roma.5

Nicola Moorby
October 2008

1
See Alberta Campitelli (ed.), Villa Borghese: I principi, le arti, la città dal Settecento all’Ottocento, exhibition catalogue, Villa Poniatowski, Rome 2003, pp.304–5.
2
See on-line database of Department of Prints and Drawings, Louvre, http://arts-graphiques.louvre.fr/fo/visite?srv=mtr, accessed October 2008.
3
Reproduced in Franceso Petrucci e Susanna Marra, Vedute dei Colli Albani e di Roma Dall’Album di viaggio di Charles Joseph Lecointe (1824–1886), exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia 2006, no.8, p.26.
4
See Paolo della Pergola, Villa Borghese, Rome 1962, nos.72 and 73, reproduced.
5
Reproduced Campitelli (ed.) 2003, no.81, p.305, reproduced.

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