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

The focus of this sketch is the Castello del Carmine, a fourteenth-century castle which formerly stood on the Marinella seafront at the eastern end of Piazza Mercato. The fortress formed the south-eastern corner of the old walls of Naples but was demolished during the programme of urban renewal at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, a small section of the wall and two circular towers can still be seen near the entrance to Piazza Mercato on present-day Via Nuova Marina. Turner’s record depicts the castle from the quayside looking west with the hill of Castel Sant’Elmo in the distance. Rising beyond is the seventeenth-century campanile of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, the tallest bell-tower in the city, whilst immediately in front of the walls is one of the many monumental Baroque fountains which were erected throughout Naples. For further related studies see folios 50 and 51 (D15652 and D15654; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 48 and 49).