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 > Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Piazza Castello, Turin, with Palazzo Madama 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Piazza Castello, Turin, with Palazzo Madama’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 34 Recto:
View of Piazza Castello, Turin, with Palazzo Madama 1819
D14210
Turner Bequest CLXXIV 33
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘1½’ within sketch
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘33’ top right and ‘284’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIV 33’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts a view of Piazza Castello, the most important square in the historic city of Turin. Turner’s viewpoint is the south-west corner of the piazza looking east and dominating the centre of the composition is the outline silhouette of the Palazzo Madama, a castle with a fifteenth-century rear and eighteenth-century front. A small part of the composition spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 33 verso (D14209; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 32a). The artist seems to have been very interested in the architecture of the Palazzo Madama because he made a number of drawings and notes on its decoration and proportions. For a more detailed study and description see folio 33 (D14208; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 32).
For a list of further sketches of Turin see folio 12 (D14166; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 11).

Nicola Moorby
December 2012

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Piazza Castello, Turin, with Palazzo Madama 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-of-piazza-castello-turin-with-palazzo-madama-r1142731, accessed 19 April 2024.