Turner’s exploration of Tivoli included a large number of landscape sketches drawn from the valley to the north. He was particularly attracted by the spectacle of the town’s ancient ruins perched above the steep, wooded gorge and streaming
cascatelli (or
cascatelle), the lesser cascades of the River Aniene. The subject of this drawing is a view of Tivoli looking east from the arcades of the Santuario di Ercole Vincitore (Sanctuary of Hercules Victor), a first-century BC Roman temple dedicated to the cult of Hercules, formerly known as the Villa of Maecenas. As Thomas Ashby identified, the substructures visible in the central middle distance are those which support the Piazza dell’Olmo (present-day Piazza Domenico Tani), whilst to the right is the campanile of the Cathedral (Duomo) of San Lorenzo.
1 At the left-hand tip of the edge of the slopes is a medieval watch-tower which stands above the valley, and the winding course of the river. A similar view can be found on folio 32 (
D15499), and in the
Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (
D15039; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 60a). Like many drawings within this sketchbook, the composition has been executed over a washed grey background. Turner has created highlights within the work by rubbing or lifting out the wash to reveal the white paper beneath, principally to delineate the architecture and to depict the silvery streams of the falling water beneath the substructures of the temple. He has further enhanced the dramatic tonal contrasts by darkening the arched passageway on the right with vigorous shading and hatched lines.