Joseph Mallord William Turner View of St Peter's Square, Rome, from the Loggia of the Vatican; Study for 'Rome from the Vatican' 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
View of St Peter's Square, Rome, from the Loggia of the Vatican; Study for 'Rome from the Vatican'
1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
View of St Peter’s Square, Rome, from the Loggia of the Vatican; Study for ‘Rome from the Vatican’ 1819
D16368
Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41
Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41
Gouache, pen, pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 232 x 370 mm
Inscribed by the artist in black pen-and-ink ‘PAVLVS III. PONT M’ centre right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 41’ bottom right
Inscribed by the artist in black pen-and-ink ‘PAVLVS III. PONT M’ centre right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 41’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (600a).
1931
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, lent from the British Museum, National Gallery, Millbank, Tate Gallery, London 1931–March 1934 (no catalogue).
1936
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest [Loan Series G], Empire Loan Collections Society, National Gallery, Cape Town, May 1936–June 1937 (no catalogue).
1972
J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972 (61, reproduced).
1973
Turner {1775 / 1851}: desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, June–July 1973 (22, reproduced).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (223, as ‘Rome: The Piazza of St. Peter from the Vatican’).
1990
The Third Decade: Turner Watercolours 1810–1820, Tate Gallery, London, January–April 1990 (41, reproduced).
1992
Turner as Professor: The Artist and Linear Perspective, Tate Gallery, London, October 1992–January 1993 (114, reproduced).
1998
Turner and the Scientists, Tate Gallery, London, March–June 1998 (17, reproduced).
2006
Drawing from Turner, Tate Gallery, November 2006–April 2007 (no catalogue).
2009
Turner és Itália, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, July–October 2009 (no number, reproduced in colour).
References
1905
W[illiam] L[ionel] Wyllie, J.M.W. Turner, London 1905, reproduced opposite p.64, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, no.600(a), pp.300, frame no.111, drawing no.231, 379, 636, as ‘Study for the Oil Picture of the Loggie’, ‘Study for the great picture of the Loggie of Vatican’ and ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.563, as ‘Rome, from the Vatican. Pen and ink and Chinese white. 600a N.G. Cf. the oil painting of “Rome from the Vatican,” exhibited R.A. 1820, and now No.503, N.G.’.
1910
Alexander J. Finberg, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings, London 1910, reproduced pl.LII opposite p.94, as ‘Rome, from the Vatican’.
1920
D[ugald] S[utherland] MacColl, National Gallery, Millbank: Catalogue: Turner Collection, London 1920, p.13.
1972
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972, no.61, p.74, reproduced p.61 Abb.13, as ‘Rom, vom Vatikan aus gesehen’.
1973
Norman Reid, Andrew Wilton and Luke Herrmann, Turner {1775 / 1851}: desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1973, no.22, p.26, reproduced, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, no.223, pp.88, 92 under no.236, as ‘Rome: The Piazza of St. Peter from the Vatican’.
1975
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Paintings, Watercolours, Prints & Drawings, London 1975, pp.[29], 231, reproduced p.147 pl.97, as ‘Rome, from the Vatican’.
1975
Mordechai Omer, ‘Turner and “The Building of the Ark”, from Raphael’s Third Vault of the Loggia’, in Burlington Magazine, vol.117, no.872, November 1975, p.694 note 6.
1977
Jean Selz, Turner, Naefels [Switzerland] 1977, p.48.
1977
Nobuyuki Senzoku, Turner, L’Art du Monde 18, Japan [and Paris?] 1977, reproduced p.101 [second row].
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.107 no.228.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.137 under no.228.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.117–8, 148, 235–6, 509 note 49, reproduced pl.158, as ‘Rome from the Vatican loggia’.
1986
Gerald Finley, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s “Rome from the Vatican”: A Palimpsest of History?’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol.49, 1986, p.62 note 34.
1987
Robert E. McVaugh, ‘Turner and Rome, Raphael and the Fornarina’, Studies in Romanticism, no.26, Fall 1987, pp.372–3, 374, reproduced p.377 fig.3, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.44, 62, 113, reproduced p.115 pl.123, as ‘Rome from the Vatican loggia’.
1987
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolours in the Clore Gallery, London 1987, reproduced in colour, p.79 pl.32, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1990
Diane Perkins, The Third Decade: Turner Watercolours 1810–1820, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1990, no.41 reproduced, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1991
Horst Koch, William Turner, Kirchdorf/Inn 1988, trans. Stephen Gorman, London 1991, reproduced p.21, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1997
James Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997, p.199 note 16.
1992
Maurice Davies, Turner as Professor: The Artist and Linear Perspective, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1992, pp.79, 86–8, 95–6, 111 notes 84–5, no.114 reproduced, as ‘Study for “Rome from the Vatican” ’.
1991
Michael Bockemühl, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Die Welt des Lichts und der Farbe, Cologne 1991.
1993
Michael Bockemühl, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: The World of Light and Colour, trans. Michael Claridge, Cologne 1993, pp.30–1, 42, reproduced in colour, p.30, as ‘Rome from the Vatican’.
1995
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner’s Sketches: Purpose and Practice’, in Joyce H. Townsend (ed.), Turner’s Painting Techniques: In Context: 1995, London 1995, p.59.
1998
James Hamilton, Turner and the Scientists, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, p.36, no.17 reproduced fig.29, as ‘Study for “Rome from the Vatican” ’.
2001
Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.269.
2001
Andrew Wilton, Inge Bodesohn-Vogel and Helena Robinson, William Turner: Licht und Farbe, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2001, p.320 under no.95.
2008
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner e l’Italia, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 2008, pp.49, 50, reproduced in colour fig.28, as ‘Studio per Roma vista dal Vaticano’.
2009
Christopher Baker and James Hamilton, Turner és Itália, exhibition catalogue, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest 2009, p.56, reproduced in colour, p.55, fig.57.
2009
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner & Italy, exhibition catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2009, p.49, reproduced in colour, p.48, pl.53, as ‘Study for “Rome from the Vatican” ’.
2009
Ian Warrell, ‘Painters Painted: The Cult of the Artist’, in David Solkin (ed.), Turner and the Masters, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009, pp.172 under no.63, 229 note 1.
2010
David Solkin and Guillaume Faroult (eds.), Turner et ses peintres, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, Paris 2010, pp.196, 262 note 12.
2011
Nicola Moorby, ‘Turner’s Sketches for “Rome from the Vatican”: Some Recent Discoveries’, Turner Society News, no.115, Spring 2011, pp.5, 10 note 18.
Technique and condition
This sketch was made on an off-white paper with a bluish grey wash applied first. The initial graphite pencil sketching for the architecture in this composition has been reinforced with iron gall ink over all the main elements. Highlights have been added in an under-bound lead white gouache. This gives a very crisp and opaque gouache, and Turner frequently used lead white for the purpose, a material he used in every oil painting, instead of the less opaque chalk used by many of his contemporaries in watercolour.
The sheet had been covered with a window mount and exposed to light, which has made the grey wash lose colour and has the caused the paper to turn perceptibly brown. The iron gall ink survives in fairly good condition here. It is normal for its initially black colour to turn brown as it ages, and this is its state today in most works where Turner used it. Extensive exposure to light would alter it chemically and eventually cause it to attack the paper surrounding each pen stroke, leading in the worse cases to extensively inked areas cracking, then falling out of the sheet altogether. Extensive exposure to the polluted nineteenth-century atmosphere of London tended to cause patchy or complete discolouration of lead white gouache to a dark brown. Neither has happened here to the slightest observable degree, which implies that the sheet has not been displayed for very long periods. This in turn implies that the grey wash must have faded quite rapidly, and suggests that indigo was used in the wash, because it fades readily in light.
Helen Evans
October 2008
Joyce Townsend
February 2011
How to cite
Helen Evans and Joyce Townsend, 'Technique and Condition', February 2011, in Nicola Moorby, ‘View of St Peter’s Square, Rome, from the Loggia of the Vatican; Study for ‘Rome from the Vatican’ 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://wwwThe subject of this complex drawing is the view from the second floor loggia in the Vatican, looking east across St Peter’s Square towards the city beyond. The panorama incorporates the vista from the Prati di Castello and the Pincian Hill on the left, past the Castel Sant’Angelo and the sweeping bend of the River Tiber in the centre, to Trastevere and the Janiculum Hill on the far right. Visible landmarks across the line of the horizon include, from left to right: the Villa Medici and the trees of the Borghese Gardens; Trinità dei Monti; the Castel Sant’Angelo; the Quirinal Palace and the two domes and bell-tower of Santa Maria Maggiore; the Torre dei Milize; the Basilica of San Giovanno in Laterano; the Capitoline Hill with the tower of the Senatorial Palace; and the domes of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and San Carlo ai Catinari. In addition to the topographical accuracy of the wider prospect, the foreground of the study incorporates the roofscape across Bernini’s colonnades in St Peter’s Square and part of the Papal Palace, as well as part of the interior of the famous Raphael Loggia.
There are three levels of loggie in the Vatican, covered galleries with open arcades bordering the Cortile di San Damaso, in the eastern wing of the Papal Palace (Palazzo Apostolico). First commissioned from Bramante (1444–1514) by Pope Julius II, the responsibility for the work passed to the official architect of Pope Leo X, the Renaissance master, Raphael (1483–1520), and it was the second floor loggia, on the same level as the Apartments of Julius II and Leo X, which was the first to be completed. Comprising a gallery of thirteen arches and sixty-five metres long, the loggia was decorated in 1517–19 by Raphael and his assistants, with grotesque patterns modelled on those in Nero’s Domus Aurea [Golden House], as well as fifty-two ceiling frescoes of scenes from the Old and New Testaments, popularly known as the ‘Bible of Raphael’. Turner visited the loggia as part of his extensive exploration of Rome in 1819 and made a number of detailed sketches of the interior, see the Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (see Tate D14955–D14965 and D14969; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 13a-21 and 24). This drawing incorporates the southern end of the loggia with the decorative panels on the end wall, above an inscription dedicated to Pope Paul III. Beneath the inscription is a marble bust of Raphael by Alessando d’Este (1787–1826), which had recently been given to the Vatican by Antonio Canova and placed on a plinth in its current location (for a detailed discussion see Tate D14969; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 24).1 Slouched against the pillar is the figure of a man with folded arms and crossed legs, dressed in the distinctive striped uniform of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.
Cecilia Powell has identified the artist’s precise viewpoint for the drawing as leaning on the window sill of the final bay of the loggia (i.e. that nearest to St Peter’s square) with a small sliver of the exterior of the Vatican visible to the right.2 From this location, the alignment of the Piazza San Pietro obelisk and Bernini’s colonnade appear as depicted within the sketch, although Turner has employed a certain amount of artistic licence by pulling in closer the distant domes and bell-towers of the Trastevere district beyond.3 As Maurice Davis has discussed, Turner has also manipulated the perspective of the foreground by twisting the position of the loggia almost ninety degrees so that it does not reflect its true position in parallel with the opposite wing of the Pontifical Palace (the Palace of Sixtus V, on the left, across the Cortile di San Damaso), but instead more effectively opens up the panoramic vista in front.4 This has a consequence for the line of the balustrade which ought to be a straight line, but instead bends in order to meet the pillar of the loggia, and not the figure of the Swiss Guard.
The study forms the main compositional basis for Turner’s large finished oil painting, Rome, from the Vatican. Raffaelle, accompanied by La Fornarina, preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia exhibited 1820 (Tate, N00503).5 Within the final painting, Turner placed the viewer at a greater distance from the window and introduces a greater portion of the interior of the loggia itself, despite recreating the same topographical view seen within the sketch.6 He also moved the position of the obelisk further across to the right so that the figure of Raphael could take centre stage within the foreground,7 and obscured the roofscape of the Vatican present immediately beneath the window ledge.8 Other differences include the absence of the figure of the Swiss Guard and the inclusion instead of the figures of Raphael and his mistress, La Fornarina, surrounded by paintings, sculptures and drawings. The pedestal at the end of the loggia is present but stands empty of its portrait bust. Further studies related to the evolution of the painting can be found in the Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (see Tate D14966 and D14970–D14972; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 21a and 25–26).
Like many drawings within the Rome C. Studies sketchbook, the composition has been executed in pencil over a washed grey background, although in this instance Turner has also reinforced the lines with extensive black pen-and-ink. As Robert McVaugh has discussed, this approach was an unusual departure for Turner and one which is not seen elsewhere within sketches related to the 1819 tour of Italy, but may be explained by the preparatory nature of the image.9 The large numbers of sketches pertaining to the loggia, as well as other Roman sites connected with Raphael indicate that Turner thoughts were very much preoccupied with the Renaissance artist during his sojourn in the city. Rome, from the Vatican was the first Italian oil completed by the artist following his return from Italy in January 1820, and the painting was speedily executed so that it could be exhibited at the Royal Academy in May. It seems extremely likely, therefore, that Turner had already formed the intention of making a finished picture on the subject of Raphael and the Vatican whilst still in Rome, and therefore set about assembling all the visual information he would require to complete the work in the studio. The accuracy of the architectural complexities within this drawing, as well as the inclusion of the Swiss Guard, suggests that the pencil on the spot at least must have been completed on the spot. It is possible, however, that the inked lines and the carefully placed white gouache highlights may have been added at a later stage, at which point Turner also added the brushes and palettes resting on the rail in the central foreground, a conceptual link with the final theme and appearance of Rome, from the Vatican. A similar collection of artistic accoutrements appears on the table to the left of the finished painting.
Unfortunately, in common with many of the sketches and watercolours chosen for display during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the sheet has suffered from overexposure to light and the paper has become irreversibly faded and discoloured. Peter Bower has suggested that this is probably down to the high content of indigo in the grey watercolour wash, rather than properties within the paper.10
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘13’ centre right, parallel with right-hand edge and ‘¼ 8’ centre left, parallel with left-hand edge.
Nicola Moorby
October 2009
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘View of St Peter’s Square, Rome, from the Loggia of the Vatican; Study for ‘Rome from the Vatican’ 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www