Joseph Mallord William Turner

Two Sketches in Rome: The Casa dei Crescenzi, also Known as Casa di Pilato; and the Porta Asinaria

1819

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Albano, Nemi, Rome Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 113 x 189 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D15362
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 36

Catalogue entry

The main sketch on this page shows the unusual ruins of the medieval Casa dei Crescenzi, a former tower fortress converted into a mansion during the eleventh century by the powerful Crescenzi family using fragments of Roman remains. The house, which stands near the Ponte Rotto on the present-day Via Luigi Petroselli, is also known as the Cola di Rienzo, or the Casa di Pilato (House of Pilate). This last name refers to the tradition of performing Passion plays within the city from the fifteenth century onwards. Certain streets were thought to resemble the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem and the Casa dei Crescenzi became the stand in for the House of Pontius Pilate where the scenes of Christ’s flagellation, the crown of thorns and the Ecce Homo took place.1
In the top right-hand corner of the page (or top left in portrait format) is a small sketch of the Porta Asinaria (Gate of the Donkeys), a Roman gate flanked by two half oval towers found within the southern stretch of the Aurelian Walls near the Porta San Giovanni and the Cathedral Church of San Giovanni in Laterano. For a related sketch see folio 38 (D15366).

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

1
Rodolfo Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, Boston and New York 1892, p.181.

Read full Catalogue entry

Explore

You might like

Left Right
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Via dei Sepolcri, Pompeii, with the Porta Ercolano; Also a Distant View of Vesuvius’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Via dei Sepolcri, Pompeii, with the Porta Ercolano; Also a Distant View of Vesuvius

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Via dei Sepolcri, Pompeii, from the Porta Ercolano’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Via dei Sepolcri, Pompeii, from the Porta Ercolano

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Muro Torto and the Porta del Popolo from the North of Rome’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Muro Torto and the Porta del Popolo from the North of Rome

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The So-Called Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl, Tivoli; also part of the Villa Adriana’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner The So-Called Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl, Tivoli; also part of the Villa Adriana

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Casa Cenci, in the Gardens of the Villa Borghese, Rome’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Casa Cenci, in the Gardens of the Villa Borghese, Rome

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto, from Porta Marina; and a Distant View of Caldarola’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto, from Porta Marina; and a Distant View of Caldarola

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches of the Villa Adriana, Tivoli: the Praetorium and Large Baths’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of the Villa Adriana, Tivoli: the Praetorium and Large Baths

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Views of the Porta Maggiore, Rome’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Views of the Porta Maggiore, Rome

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Views in Rome: Including the Porta San Lorenzo and the Temple of Minerva Medica’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Views in Rome: Including the Porta San Lorenzo and the Temple of Minerva Medica

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Porta Pia and Lazzaretto, Ancona’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Porta Pia and Lazzaretto, Ancona

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches in the Via dei Sepolcri, Pompeii’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches in the Via dei Sepolcri, Pompeii

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Casa degli Omenoni, Milan’ 1820

Joseph Mallord William Turner Casa degli Omenoni, Milan

1820
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Villa Rondanini, on the Road Approaching the Porta San Lorenzo, Rome; and Part of the Aurelian Wall, Rome’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Villa Rondanini, on the Road Approaching the Porta San Lorenzo, Rome; and Part of the Aurelian Wall, Rome

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of the Vatican from Porta Angelica, Rome’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Vatican from Porta Angelica, Rome

1819
View by appointment
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Piazza della Rotonda with the Portico of the Pantheon; and a Study of the Sky over Rome’ 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner Piazza della Rotonda with the Portico of the Pantheon; and a Study of the Sky over Rome

1819
View by appointment