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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. This is one of a short sequence of pages with views in the vicinity of the elevated Bridge of Sighs, on the Rio del Palazzo between the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and New Prisons; see under folio 61 verso (D32046) for details and further discussion. For this sketchbook’s general sequence, see its Introduction.

Here, Turner has attempted to convey the elevation of the palace’s lengthy east front along the canal (with part of the Bridge of Sighs cursorily indicated at the left) as if seen from a distance, flattening out the steep perspective inherent in the confines of the viewpoint (compare folio 62 recto; D32047). Three of the four tall arches leading through to the courtyard on the near side of the bridge are shown towards the left, with the head of the smaller one a few bays to their right at the centre. Only a few of the arched windows ranged across the three upper storeys are shown. The plainer vertical band towards the right seems to equate with the more austere section nearest the Ponte della Canonica.