This page contains a distant view of Tivoli seen from the road skirting the end of the valley to the north-east. Turner’s viewpoint may be the Convent of Sant’Antonio, also known as the Villa d’Orazio (Villa of Horace).
1 Monte Catillo rises on the left-hand of the prospect, whilst visible in the centre is the so-called Temple of Vesta, a circular ruin dating from the first century BC, which stands on the edge of the gorge at the northern edge of the town, near the former falling point of the ‘Great Cascade’ of the River Aniene. The adjacent campanile to the right belongs to the Church of San Giorgio, which until the end of the nineteenth century incorporated the remains of another ancient edifice, the so-called Temple of the Sibyl. Silhouetted against the horizon on the far right-hand side meanwhile is a medieval watch-tower positioned above the falls of the
cascatelli, or lesser cascades. Similar vistas from the end of the valley can be seen on folios 2, 18, 22, 33, 34, 35, 78 (
D15468,
D15488,
D15488,
D15500,
D15501,
D15502,
D15550), as well as the
Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (Tate
D15000–D15005 and
D15092; Turner Bequest 40–42 verso and 86a), and in a watercolour study in the
Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate
D16116; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 28). Today, the same view of Tivoli is dominated by the great waterfall of the Villa Gregoriana, created by the diversion of the river away from the residential district after a devastating flood in 1826.
