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 Studies from Raphael's Fresco, 'The Council of the Gods' in the Villa Farnesina, Rome; and a Landscape with Boats and a Windmill 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies from Raphael's Fresco, 'The Council of the Gods' in the Villa Farnesina, Rome; and a Landscape with Boats and a Windmill’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
Studies from Raphael’s Fresco, ‘The Council of the Gods’ in the Villa Farnesina, Rome; and a Landscape with Boats and a Windmill 1819
D13935
Turner Bequest CLXXII 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘St Pietro in Vincoli Moses | St Antinous, [?V. Braccino]’ top right and ‘Venus’ and ‘Juno Raffaelo’ underneath sketches top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s use of his sketchbooks was often sporadic and this page contains a number of unconnected elements. As his annotations indicate, the sketch in the top left-hand corner of the page depicts the figures of Venus (left) and Juno (right) from Raphael’s fresco, ‘The Council of the Gods’, part of the ceiling decoration of the Loggia di Psiche in the Villa Farnesina, Rome.1 Further sketches related to the loggia can be found on folio 28 verso and 29 verso (D13985 and D13987) and Turner also made notes concerning the ceiling in the Route to Rome sketchbook (see Tate D13884; Turner Bequest CLXXI 14 verso).
Meanwhile, Turner’s inscriptions in the top right-hand corner include a reference to a sculpture of Moses by Michelangelo in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Cecilia Powell has noted that this is a work which James Hakewill (1778–1843) highlighted in his advice to Turner in the Route to Rome sketchbook (see Tate D13924; Turner Bequest CLXXI 35).2 However, it is not known whether the inscription here means that Turner actually saw it.
Aligned with the right-hand edge of the page is a rough sketch of an unidentified landscape with boats. In the foreground on the right is a boat with two figures.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, p.405.
2
Ibid., p.484 note 95.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Studies from Raphael’s Fresco, ‘The Council of the Gods’ in the Villa Farnesina, Rome; and a Landscape with Boats and a Windmill 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-studies-from-raphaels-fresco-the-council-of-the-gods-in-the-r1138756, accessed 25 April 2024.