Joseph Mallord William Turner

The largest sketch on this page depicts the back of the Capitoline Hill with the Tarpeian Rock, the legendary place of execution from which prisoners were thrown to their deaths during the Roman Republic. Turner’s viewpoint repeats that of a composition by Luigi Rossini (1790–1857), Veduta degl’Avanzi della Rupe Tarpeja rivestita di Case moderne. Dalla parte posteriore del Campidoglio Romano.1

There are two additional landscape views on this page drawn with the sketchbook held in portrait format. They appear to depict the River Tiber from a location just outside of the centre of Rome to the south of the Aventine Hill. The upper sketch shows the view on the opposite bank looking towards the section of the Aurelian walls which connects the Porta San Paolo (also known as the Porta Ostiense) and the river. The lower sketch depicts the view looking north towards the city with Mount Aventine on the right and the dome of St Peter’s in the distance on the left. A similar set of sketches looking respectively north, east and south from the same location can be found on folios 57 verso and 58 (D16254 and D16259; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 54a and 57).