Joseph Mallord William Turner

Tivoli, from Monte Catillo

1819

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Naples: Rome. C. Studies Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 254 x 403 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D16116
Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 28

Catalogue entry

This view is one of only two watercolour studies of Tivoli dating from Turner’s 1819 tour of Italy, and represents the northern tip of the town seen from the lower slopes of Monte Catillo. The artist’s viewpoint appears to be a point on present-day Via Quintilio Varo, the road which skirts the end of valley to the north-east. The town lies across the brow of a promontory of land at the top and visible in the centre of Tivoli is the so-called Temple of Vesta, a circular edifice dating from the first century BC which stands on the edge of the gorge. Immediately to the left is the Ponte San Rocco, a wooden bridge which spanned the precipitous drop near the former falling point of the ‘Grand Cascade’ of the River Aniene, whilst adjacent on the right is the so-called Temple of the Sibyl, a rectangular ruin which until the end of the nineteenth century was incorporated within the Church of San Giorgio. In the bottom right-hand corner of the composition, the river winds west towards Rome and the flat, open plain of the Campagna. Half-way up the slopes above, Turner has just started to define the long, low buildings of the convent of San Antonio, also known as the Villa d’Orazio (Villa of Horace).
It has been suggested in the past that Turner’s Tivoli watercolours do not apparently derive from any specific sketches and were therefore possibly executed on the spot.1 However, there are, in fact, a large number of related views taken from various points at the end of valley, in the Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (Tate D15000–D15005, and D15092; Turner Bequest 40–42a and 86a), and in the Tivoli sketchbook (Tate D15468, D15488, D15500–D15502; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 2, 22, 33–5). A more detailed study of the town from the same viewpoint can also be seen on another page within this sketchbook (see Tate D16118; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 30). Furthermore, the composition is also similar to that of an early oil painting, Tivoli and the Roman Campagna circa 1798 (Tate, N05512),2 which was itself based upon a version of a picture by the eighteenth-century Welsh artist, Richard Wilson (1713–1782), for example, Temple of the Sibyl and the Roman Campagna circa 1765–70 (Tate, T01706). As Cecilia Powell has discussed, there is no evidence that the artist actually painted in the open air during his time in Italy. Several contemporary sources testify that his preference was for drawing on the spot and for colouring indoors away from the motif, since it took up ‘too much time to colour in the open-air’ and ‘he could make 15 or 16 pencil sketches to one colored’.3 It seems more likely therefore, that the basic outline of the composition was first sketched in pencil, possibly on-the-spot, and that the watercolour was added later from memory.4
1
Butlin, Wilton and Gage 1974, p.88 under no.218.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, no.44.
3
Letter to John Soane from his son, 15 November 1819, quoted in Powell 1987, p.50.
4
Powell 1984, p.175 and Powell 1987, p.78.
5
John Ruskin, Catalogue of the Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner at Present Exhibited in the National Gallery, Orpington 1881, in Cook and Wedderburn (eds.), vol.XIII, p.379.

Nicola Moorby
March 2010

Read full Catalogue entry

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Left Right
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from the Summit of Monte Catillo’ 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Cascatelli and Monte Catillo, Tivoli, from the Valley’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Cascatelli and Monte Catillo, Tivoli, from the Valley

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli, from Monte Catillo’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli, from Monte Catillo

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli, with the So-Called Temple of Vesta, from Monte Catillo’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli, with the So-Called Temple of Vesta, from Monte Catillo

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli and Monte Catillo, from the Villa of Quintilius Varus’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli and Monte Catillo, from the Villa of Quintilius Varus

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Cascatelli and the Santuario di Ercole Vincitore’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Cascatelli and the Santuario di Ercole Vincitore

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the Rocca Pia’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the Rocca Pia

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Study of a Waterfall, Tivoli’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of a Waterfall, Tivoli

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with a Distant View of the Montes Corniculani’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with a Distant View of the Montes Corniculani

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Cascatelli, Tivoli, from the Valley’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Cascatelli, Tivoli, from the Valley

1819
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli, from the Convent of Sant’Antonio’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli, from the Convent of Sant’Antonio

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View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Cascatelli’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Cascatelli

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the So-Called Temple of Vesta’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the So-Called Temple of Vesta

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the So-Called Temple of Vesta’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the So-Called Temple of Vesta

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the Rocca Pia’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from Monte Catillo, with the Rocca Pia

1819
View by appointment