Finberg subsequently annotated his tentative 1909
Inventory entry (‘A palace (?)’) as ‘“Place d’Erbe” – Prby. Piazza delle Erbe, Verona’.
1 In another copy he wrote ‘Piazza del Erbe’.
2 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked a further copy, crossing out the tentative title and writing: ‘Palazzo della Ragione Padua’.
3 However, Bell noted ‘Vicenza’ in relation to Finberg’s entry for this page in his 1930
In Venice with Turner (‘“Place d’Erbe.” Piazza delle Erbe, Verona’).
4Of these alternatives, Bell was correct in his Padua identification, with the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua’s town hall, on the left and the Piazza delle Erbe in the foreground, looking east. Among various numbers, Turner’s ‘22’ indicates the arches along the upper level of the loggia. The medieval Torre degli Anziani, rising at the centre, has since lost its cupola. The lightly indicated second cupola below it to the right appears to be that of the Torre del Bo, now much truncated.
There are other views of Padua opposite on folio 34 verso and on folio 36 recto (
D14379,
D14381). Another sketchbook which Turner carried with him on this tour includes travel notes by James Hakewill (1778–1843), with whom he had been collaborating on the
Picturesque Tour of Italy (published in 1820); see Nicola Moorby’s Introduction to the
Route to Rome book (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXI). Hakewill mentioned ‘Padua. See the church of St. Justina | D[itt]o – St Antonio’ (Tate
D13901; Turner Bequest CLXXI 23), but there are no identified views of abbey of Santa Giustina or the basilica of San Antonio, both a little way south of the city centre.
For the Padua in relation to Turner’s route east across northern Italy to Venice, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.
