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

Turner’s viewpoint for this sketch was southernmost tip of the Isola Tiberina, near the Convent of San Bartolomeo. The drawing depicts the view looking downstream towards the Ponte Rotto (formerly the Pons Aemilius), an ancient ruined stone bridge at the southernmost tip of the island. The structure was originally damaged by a flood in 1598 which swept away the eastern pillars, hence its name which literally translates as ‘Broken Bridge’.1 Today there is just one isolated arch remaining as a freestanding structure in the centre of the river near the late nineteenth-century iron bridge, the Ponte Palatino. However, in Turner’s day there were three full arches still in existence, linking the bridge to the Trastevere district on the right bank. Many of the houses and mills lining the river were demolished during the construction of the Lungotevere and embankment at the end of the nineteenth century. Above the bridge can be seen some of the buildings and monuments of the Forum Boarium, including the circular Temple of Hercules Victor (sometimes called the Temple of Vesta or Temple of the Sun) and the bell-tower of the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. To the left is the Temple of Portunus with the small built-in campanile of the Church of Santa Maria Egiziaca. Along the horizon at the top are the monumental ancient ruins of the Palace of the Caesars on the Palatine Hill (not as Finberg thought, the Aventine Hill). Like many drawings within this sketchbook, the composition has been executed over a washed grey background and Turner has created areas of pale highlights by lifting or rubbing through to the white paper beneath. A related sketch can be found in the Rome and Florence sketchbook (see Tate D16490; Turner Bequest CXCI 4).

Views of the Ponte Rotto were a popular subject within the tradition of Italian vedute and hence had become part of an established repertory of views for English tourists to Rome.2 Turner’s composition is very similar to one drawn by James Hakewill in 1817, Rome. View from the Convent of S. Bartolomeo looking to the Ponte Rotto, the Temple of Vesta etc., (British School at Rome Library).3 Compare also the painting by Penry Williams (1802–1885), The Tiber with the Temple of Vesta, Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the Ponte Rotto Seen from the Convent of San Bartolomeo 1828 (National Museum Wales). For other sketches by Turner of the Ponte Rotto see the Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook (Tate D15376; Turner Bequest CLXXXII 43) and the St Peter’s sketchbook (Tate D16249–D16250; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 52–52a).

Verso:
Blank except for traces of grey watercolour