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 11 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13952
Turner Bequest CLXXII 11 a
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
 
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:
by some called Vesta converted into the Church of | St George Monte Catillo by the side of the river | 2 convents near San Antonio Quinteliolo. | Villa of Horace disputed by the narrowness of his means Villa | Maecenas – Catullus Suburbana Cascatelli | spring of Bandusia circular building of Brick like | Minerva Medica temple of Fanum Tussis near Bridge | Villa Estense ^ built ^ by a cardinal in the 16 Century road to | Horaces Villa by Via Valeria the shortest to Vico Varo ruins of two aqueducts St Polo and Castle | Madama Claudian Aq. or Bridge of Anio | Grotto of St Benedict, Convent of Cosimato Canta | Lubo, Bardela Mandela Licenza anciently the | Digentia the favourite rill of Horace on a craggy | rock the temple Fanum Vacunæ Minerva | or Victory of the Sabines Rocca Giovani spring | here called Bandusia Mt Lucretilis Villa | Fonte Bello – | The Alban Mount. Road Via Appia from | Porta Capena, over Alomone Fossa Cluillia | Horatii and Curiatii 6 Miles to the right | near the gate of Albano. the tomb of Ascanius | or by some Clodius Villa Laurentium 7 hills | The Lake of Turnus Vada Sacra Numici Alban | Lake ^ 7 miles^ Gandolfo Marino, Fountain source of | the Ferentinia. Grotto Ferrata villa of | Cicero stream called Marana East Tusculum | Abby of St Basil or St Nilus on its scite | pictures in the Chapel by Domechino
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s various sketchbooks, such as the Villa of Maecenas, the Villa d’Este and the Villa Adriana at Tivoli, the so-called tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii at Albano, and Castel Gandolfo and Lake Albano, see Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest sketchbook CLXXIX), Tivoli sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII) and Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXII).
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.391–2.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.232–262.

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-r1138773, accessed 19 April 2024.