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 > Venice to Ancona Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Porta San Donato, Bologna, with the Torri Garisenda and Asinelli above the City Beyond 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Porta San Donato, Bologna, with the Torri Garisenda and Asinelli above the City Beyond’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Recto:
The Porta San Donato, Bologna, with the Torri Garisenda and Asinelli above the City Beyond 1819
D14542
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 26h
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Partial watermark ‘Allnutt | 18’
Inscribed in pencil ‘clxxvi.26h’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 26h’ towards bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The view is south-west from near the Porta San Donato, with its medieval tower, on the right. Beyond, looking along what is now Via Zamboni, just to its left is the campanile of San Giacomo Maggiore, and then, about half as far on again, the tall medieval Torre Asinelli with, to its right, the shorter, conspicuously leaning Torre Garisenda and, to its left, the dome of the church of Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano, framing a prospect of the spires of Bologna and distant hills. Later developments now preclude this direct view. For general remarks on Bologna and Turner’s numerous views on adjacent pages, including others of the two towers, see under folio 24 recto (D14532).
Finberg noted of the pages he designated Turner Bequest CLXXVI 26a–h (D14535– D14542): ‘The following four leaves were found loose, but appear to belong here.’1 Their presence as now bound at this stage of the sketchbook affects its foliation sequence compared to Finberg’s numbering; see the concordance in the Introduction.
1
Finberg 1909, I, p.517.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Porta San Donato, Bologna, with the Torri Garisenda and Asinelli above the City Beyond 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-porta-san-donato-bologna-with-the-torri-garisenda-and-r1186278, accessed 06 May 2025.