Joseph Mallord William Turner

The subject of this sketch is the Temples of the Acropolis in Tivoli, seen from the river valley to the north-east of the town. The view looks up the steep sides of the gorge to the temples at the top: on the left, the circular so-called Temple of Vesta; and on the right, the rectangular Temple of the Sibyl, which until the end of the nineteenth century was incorporated within the Church of San Giorgio. A related sketch can be seen on folio 79 verso (D15076; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 78a), whilst more detailed views can be found within the Tivoli sketchbook (Tate D15485, D15511–D15512, D15550; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 19, 43–4, 78) and in the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16118 and D16146–D16147; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 30 and 58–9).

For over two hundred years, the vista of the ancient ruined temples seen above the gorge with the nearby cascades of the River Aniene had been one of the most frequently depicted prospects in Tivoli.1 Compare a contemporaneous drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), Temple of the Sibyl, Tivoli (British School at Rome Library).2 Turner later developed his sketches and memories of the site within a vignette illustration for Rogers’s Italy, published in 1830 (see Tate D27683; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 166).