Joseph Mallord William Turner Details of the Decorations of Raphael's Loggia in the Vatican: the Third External Pier 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: the Third External Pier 1819
D14960
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 17
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 17
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 112 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil with various notes on the loggia decorations [see main catalogue entry]
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘17’ bottom right, descending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 17’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Inscribed by the artist in pencil with various notes on the loggia decorations [see main catalogue entry]
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘17’ bottom right, descending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 17’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.527 as ‘Details of the decorations of the Logge. No.122d, Second Loan Collection’.
1965
Jerrold Ziff, ‘Copies of Claude’s Paintings in the Sketch Books of J.M.W. Turner, Gazette des beaux-arts, vol.65, January 1965, pp.56, 64 note 24.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.92 under no.236.
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.147.
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.107 under no.228.
1982
Cecilia Powell, ‘Exhibition Review: Turner’s First Visit to Italy in 1819’, Turner Studies, Summer 1982, vol.2, no.1, p.48.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.148, 151 note 2, 235.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.137 under no.228.
1987
Robert E. McVaugh, ‘Turner and Rome, Raphael and the Fornarina’, Studies in Romanticism, no.26, Autumn 1987, pp.371–2.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.65 note 1.
1997
James Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997, p.205 note 1.
1998
James Hamilton, Turner and the Scientists, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, p.68.
2009
Ian Warrell, ‘Painters Painted: The Cult of the Artist’, in David Solkin (ed.), Turner and the Masters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009, p.229 note 1 under no.63.
2010
David Solkin and Guillaume Faroult (eds.), Turner et ses peintres, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris 2010, pp.196, 262 note 12.
2011
Nicola Moorby, ‘Turner’s Sketches for “Rome from the Vatican”: Some Recent Discoveries’, Turner Society News, no.115, Spring 2011, pp.5, 10 notes 16 and 20.
The sketches on this page relate to Turner’s recreation of the Loggia of Raphael on the right-hand side of the painting Rome from the Vatican. Raffaelle Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia exhibited 1820 (Tate, N00503).1 They depict the fresco and stucco decorations on the third external pier of the loggia (i.e. the pillar between the second and third windows from the end) and comprise two distinct groups, from top left to bottom right:
a.
Details of the stucco and grotesque decorations from the facing (front) side of the third external pier. The upper section is recorded on the left-hand side and the lower part is continued on the top right-hand side. The stucco medallions from this pilaster comprise, from top to bottom: a falcon with a Medici Ring; a soldier with a spear and shield; hunters; and a portrait head of Giovanni da Udine.2 Turner has variously annotated the sketch with colour notes from the top to bottom: ‘Bl’, ‘Red’, ‘Purple Globe’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Lake Shadow | Blue Lights’, ‘Butterfly Cho Or Blue and R Purple | W’, ‘Yell’, ‘Purple’, ‘Dark’, ‘Dark Pink Red Yellow’, ‘Yel’, ‘Red’, ‘Dark G | The Darker Subjects | Like Fruit’, ‘Or’, ‘White’, ‘Butterfly’, ‘Red’, ‘B’, ‘Red’.
b.
In the bottom left-hand corner are three successive strips representing the details of the grotesque decorations on the right-hand side of the facing third external pilaster.3 Each sketch succeeds the next from the top (left) to middle (centre), to bottom (right). The sketch is inscribed ‘Top of side of [?Frescoes]’ and then variously ‘[...]B’, ‘P’, ‘Y’, ‘O’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘O’, ‘B’, ‘Yell | Porpoise | Red’, ‘G’, ‘P’, ‘Red’, ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’.
Details of the stucco and grotesque decorations from the facing (front) side of the third external pier. The upper section is recorded on the left-hand side and the lower part is continued on the top right-hand side. The stucco medallions from this pilaster comprise, from top to bottom: a falcon with a Medici Ring; a soldier with a spear and shield; hunters; and a portrait head of Giovanni da Udine.2 Turner has variously annotated the sketch with colour notes from the top to bottom: ‘Bl’, ‘Red’, ‘Purple Globe’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Lake Shadow | Blue Lights’, ‘Butterfly Cho Or Blue and R Purple | W’, ‘Yell’, ‘Purple’, ‘Dark’, ‘Dark Pink Red Yellow’, ‘Yel’, ‘Red’, ‘Dark G | The Darker Subjects | Like Fruit’, ‘Or’, ‘White’, ‘Butterfly’, ‘Red’, ‘B’, ‘Red’.
b.
In the bottom left-hand corner are three successive strips representing the details of the grotesque decorations on the right-hand side of the facing third external pilaster.3 Each sketch succeeds the next from the top (left) to middle (centre), to bottom (right). The sketch is inscribed ‘Top of side of [?Frescoes]’ and then variously ‘[...]B’, ‘P’, ‘Y’, ‘O’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘O’, ‘B’, ‘Yell | Porpoise | Red’, ‘G’, ‘P’, ‘Red’, ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’.
The third pilaster appears in Rome from the Vatican to the immediate right of the foreground figure of Raphael. The facing side is just visible, although the oblique angle makes the details of the decoration difficult to decipher and it is the lateral side which is more clearly represented, see folio 18 verso (D14962). Further studies related to the evolution of Rome from the Vatican can be found on folios 13 verso–16 verso, 18–21 verso and 25–26 (D14955–D14959, D14961–D14966 and D14970–D14972), as well as an elaborate compositional drawing in pen and ink in the Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16368; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41). For a full description of the loggia and Turner’s sketches see folio 14 (D14956).
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, no.228.
See Nicole Dacos, Le Logge di Rafaello: Maestro e bottega di fronte all’antico, Rome 1977, p.265, reproduced Tav.CII, as ‘b) Pilastro III, opposto’. The details are repeated on the lower part of the third internal pilaster, see the engraving by Volpato, reproduced in Dacos 1977, Tav.LXXXIX a).
Verso:
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Nicola Moorby
January 2010
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: the Third External Pier 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www