During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the temple was a well-known landmark for travellers on the Via Flaminia, adjacent as it was to the first post stage after Foligno, Le Vene.
3 It was also a popular subject for artists and writers and Turner would have been familiar with its appearance from various other contemporary sources. As a young man he had made a study of Richard Wilson’s painting
Temple of Clitumnus 1754,
4 which at the time was owned by the Prince of Wales, although it is not clear whether Turner worked from the original or from a reproductive print (see
Wilson sketchbook, Tate
D01195–D01196; Turner Bequest XXXVII 78–9).
5 A tiny pen-and-ink view of the temple appears in the
Italian Guide Book sketchbook, copied from John ‘Warwick’ Smith’s
Select Views in Italy (see Tate
D13964; Turner Bequest CLXXII 18, second from top left). Turner was also familiar with Stourhead, the estate of his friend and patron, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the gardens of which contained a structure inspired by the Corinthian temple, the Temple of Flora, built in 1744–6 by the architect Henry Flitcroft.
6 Furthermore, he may also have seen other images of it such as a lecture diagram of the elevation and plan of the portico by his friend, Sir John Soane (John Soane Museum, London), or a topographical drawing by James Hakewill, his collaborator on
Picturesque Views in Italy, published 1819.
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