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 > St Peter's Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View from the Capitol, Rome, with the Cordonata 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View from the Capitol, Rome, with the Cordonata’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
View from the Capitol, Rome, with the Cordonata 1819
D16203
Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 25
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 189 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVIII 25’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint appears to be the top of the Aracoeli staircase, a steep flight of steps leading up towards the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Turner’s view looks across left to the Cordonata, the wide ramp designed by Michelangelo to link the Piazza Venezia to the Piazza del Campidoglio and the Palazzo Senatorio on the Capitol. Visible on the left-hand side are the Dioscuri statues, a pair of classical male nudes each holding a horse, which represent the twin sons of Jupiter, Castor and Pollux. For a view from the Tower of the Capitol looking down to the Dioscuri see folio 79 (D16300; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 78), and for a view from the bottom of the steps looking up see the Albano Nemi Rome sketchbook (Tate D15404; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 56a). To the right of the sketch the panorama continues west over the city. There are three domes visible in the skyline, probably those of the three largest in Rome: from left to right, San Carlo ai Catinari, Sant’Andrea della Valle and St Peter’s (as an outline only).
A small part of the drawing spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 25 verso (D16202; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 24 a).
Verso:
Blank

Nicola Moorby
September 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View from the Capitol, Rome, with the Cordonata 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-view-from-the-capitol-rome-with-the-cordonata-r1139714, accessed 05 April 2026.