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

Finberg’s 1909 Inventory title ‘Riva degli Schiavone’ (sic)1 was expanded by Ian Warrell to ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, Looking West to the Salute and the Campanile; with a Sketch of San Giorgio Maggiore’ in 2003, in connection with his concurrent Turner and Venice exhibition at Tate Britain.2 The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally.

The familiar gentle curve of the Bacino waterfront leads on to the filigree roofline of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) at the centre, with the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) looming beyond to its right; after a few slight indications of distant towers, the large dome on the left is that of Santa Maria della Salute, across the entrance to the Grand Canal to the west-south-west. It is possible that the smaller dome at the left-hand edge is intended to mark the Redentore, on the Isola della Giudecca to the south-west, which ought to be well to the left. Symptomatic of this tendency to lateral compression in such views, the elevation of San Giorgio Maggiore, which stands south across the water almost at right-angles to the left of the sketch’s main axis, has been included at the top left.

The loosely rendered details of the architecture makes it difficult to establish whether the schematic converging lines at the bottom right mark the steps of the Ponte del Sepolcro or the Ponte della Pietà, respectively to the east and west of the church of that name. There is a similar, slightly more detailed scene on the verso (D31998). Compare a drawing in the 1819 Venice to Ancona sketchbook (Tate D14500; Turner Bequest CLXXVI 7) and folio 43 verso here (D32010), both including the Pietà in the foreground, and a two-page panorama from San Giorgio to St Mark’s in the 1819 book (D14497–D14498; CLXXVI 5a–6).

Beside the spire of St Mark’s towards the top right, the upper stages of the campanile of Santa Maria Formosa appear to descend to inadvertently surreal effect, continued from the full-page horizontal view the other way up on folio 36 verso opposite (D31996). For this sketchbook’s general sequence, including Hardy George’s broad overview,3 see its Introduction.