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 > Ancona to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tomb of Nero, Rome 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Tomb of Nero, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 92 Recto:
The Tomb of Nero, Rome 1819
D14832
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 92
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 110 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘1’ and ‘2’ within tombs top right and ‘3’, ‘Acqua | [?Rossi]’, ‘Rosa’ and ‘[...] in centre of second line of sketches from top and ‘6’ and ‘Nero’ within third line of sketches from top
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘92’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVII 92’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains several studies of the so-called ‘Tomb of Nero’, a marble sarcophagus richly decorated with bas-reliefs which is found on the Via Cassia about five miles north of the centre of Rome. The tomb was popularly believed to be that of the tyrannous Roman emperor, Nero and although an inscription on the tomb clearly identifies it as that of a consul, Publius Vibio Mariano, the legend persisted until the nineteenth century where it was pointed out to tourists arriving in Rome.1 Today the district bears the name of ‘Tomba di Nerone’. Turner is likely to been familiar with Piranesi’s illustration of the monument, Tomb of Nero from the engraved series Le Antichità Romane, first published in 1756.2
Some of the sketches are numbered although it is not known to what this relates. Turner has also drawn a figure wearing a cape and hat in the top right-hand corner.
1
Charlotte Anne Easton, Rome in the Nineteenth Century: Containing a Complete Account of the Ruins of the Ancient City, the Remains of the Middle Ages and the Monuments of Modern Times, Edinburgh 1820, p.100.
2
Luigi Ficacci, Piranesi: The Complete Etchings, Köln and London 2000, no.291, reproduced p.263.
Verso:
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘2’ bottom right

Nicola Moorby
November 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Tomb of Nero, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-the-tomb-of-nero-rome-r1138995, accessed 04 April 2026.