J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

One of the most significant series of studies dating from Turner’s 1819 trip to Rome was the sequence of pencil sketches relating to the Loggia of Raphael, a colonnaded porch on the second floor of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, decorated by Raphael (1483–1520) and his studio. From these drawings evolved the artist’s first finished oil painting following his Italian tour, the vast canvas Rome from the Vatican. Raffaelle Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia exhibited 1820 (Tate, N00503).1 In addition to compiling a detailed visual record of the southern end of the loggia, see folios 13 verso–21 (D14955–D14965), Turner also made two compositional sketches exploring the theme of an artist working in the loggia. The rough, free execution of these drawings belies their imaginary, conceptual nature, in marked contrast to the carefully observed and annotated studies of the decorative and architectural elements of the loggia. Although obviously related in theme and appearance, the two sketches reveal different strategies for the depiction of the figure of Raphael within the foreground of the finished picture.

This sketch has been described as the ‘stronger and more ambitious’ of the two compositional studies, although the details are still somewhat smudged and indistinct.2 The design shows a standing man gesturing with an outstretched arm towards a canvas or panel propped up next to a group of three or four models or spectators. The archaic dress and dark floppy hat suggest that the man is an artist, whilst the voluptuous naked female is perhaps intended to represent Raphael’s mistress and muse, La Fornarina. On the far right-hand side is another assemblage of figures, including what appears to be a mother and child, which is possibly intended to represent a statuary group.3 The presence of various pictures, as well as the female nude and the draped curtain are strongly suggestive of an artist’s studio. Cecilia Powell has described the setting of the sketch as a ‘barrel-vaulted room or loggia’, where the scale of architecture is too small in comparison with the human figures to represent the Vatican logge.4 However, the arched windows and the façade of a building identifiable as the Apostolic Palace visible beyond appears to confirm that it is intended to represent the Loggia of Raphael.5 As Gerald Finley and Maurice Davies have both observed, the depiction of space is very odd. In common with the twisting perspective of the finished painting, Turner has distorted the arcading so that it curves away to the right, thus providing a more commodious and interesting foreground.6

Like the male protagonist within this scene, the figure of Raphael in Rome from the Vatican stands in the foreground of the painting, silhouetted against the opening of a bay of the arcade. Finley has suggested a possible link to the central figures of Plato and Aristotle framed by the open arch in Raphael’s famous fresco, The School of Athens, in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura.7 However, the contemplative spirit of the artist’s final pose in the painting is closer to that indicated within the alternative compositional study, see folio 25 verso (D14971). Turner appears to have revisited the standing pose at a later date, and used it as the source for another painting of an Old Master in a studio-like setting, Watteau Study by Du Fresnoy’s Rules exhibited 1831 (Tate, N00514).8 In this later picture, the figural arrangement of the artist, Watteau, and his attendant entourage, appear to derive from Turner’s earlier sketch.

Further studies related to the evolution of Rome from the Vatican can be found on folios 21 verso, and 24–25 (D14966 and D14969–D14970), as well as an elaborate compositional drawing in pen and ink in the Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16368; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41).