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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13942
Turner Bequest CLXXII 6
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
Santa Croce – Alban Mt to the South | bearing W to Antium and the Tyrrhene Sea | E. the Latin vale Tusculum in White lines | on its declivity. with the ridge the scite of | Alba Longa terminating in a point once | crowned by a temple to Jupiter Latialis E | the. Tiburtine Hills with Tiber behind | the . Sabine Mts. the Appenines 40. distant | E and N. Mt Soracte 30. N. | To visit the Rioni / Regions by Ciceroni not good | The seven Hills – Vatican and Pincian Mt | Campus Martius. the Capitoline Hill, once | E. Summit Jupiter Feretrius W. Jup Custos Fortune | and Fides centre. Jupiter Capitolinus – now | only rock and a Chapel of St Peter or his dungeon | Capidoglio [sic]: N.. entrance by Steps Castor | and Pollux .. monte cavallo statue of Marcus | Aurelius. 3 Pallucis built by Mic Angelo | corinthian and a lofty Tower. stair case | the Genius of Rome. Tiber and Nile Museum | Capitolinum plan of Rome in tessalated work near the wall of the grand staircase Arca Coeli | Convent. 124 steps the two ways from there | the Capitol terminates by the Arch of Tiberius | West Severus East Jupiter Tonans erected | by Augustus to commemorate his preservation. | from a thunder bolt right hand the temple of Concord. built by Camillus. 8 Granite pillars | Forum. or Campus Martius Viccino
These notes relate to various passages from volume I of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 Powell has noted that at least two phrases on this page reveal that Turner must have been reading either the 1815 or 1817 version of A Classical Tour, not the first (1813) edition. The pillars of the Temple of Concord are described as ‘granite’ not porphyry, and the three palaces of the Capitol are given the name ‘Pallucis’, both of which were amendments incorporated into the later versions of Eustace’s book.3
For a general discussion on Turner’s notes from Eustace, see the introduction to the sketchbook.
1
Powell 1984, pp.383–4.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.1, pp.357–74.
3
Powell 1984, pp.445–6.
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138763, accessed 24 April 2024.