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 13 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13956
Turner Bequest CLXXII 13 a
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue text 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:
Baiae by the Grotto Puteoli Nisida | promentory of Ischia Bay of Puzzuolo point | of Posilipo, Scuola di Virgilio – Island of | Nisida Puteoli an amphitheatre. | Jupiter Serapis and Mole Bridge of Caligula | from P to B. From Pozz^u^olo the Lucrine Lake | Cicero Villa. Boat from Pozzuolo to | the Lucrine lake Lanterna di Porta Giulio | Monte Nu^o^vo Lake of Avernus Cuma | Misenus Annibal under pretext ^of^ round the | walls of Pueololi in sacrificing at Averus on the | south bank. the temple of Apollo or Pro | serpine opposite the Grotto Sybilla also Cuma | Lucrinus Cimmirians Baths of Baiae | Terme di Nerone Tempio di Venere | Camere di Venere temple of Diana ditto | of Mercury. Baiae castle tomb of Agrippina | promontory of Baulis, Cento Camarelle | Piscina Mirabile port of Misenus. Mare | morte. Mt Procida Selvaggi. Campi Elesi | Solfatarra. Forum Vulcani. | Cumae by Piozzolo from Naples Cicero villa | Mt Gaurus cross the Mt commands the | Avernus Lake ending by the Arco Felice | supported by some the temple of Apollo or
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Naples and its environs.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s sketchbooks, such as the Gulf of Pozzuoli and Lake Avernus, see the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV).
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, p.396.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.384–421.

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-r1138777, accessed 25 April 2024.