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

With the page turned horizontally, the sketches here are rapid and somewhat disjointed, perhaps made in failing light. To either side of the centre are studies of the Gothic tower of Bolzano (Bozen) Cathedral, with indications of the elaborate filigree tracery of its upper stages and spire. The main left-hand view is south-eastward across the city’s main square, with the Dolomites beyond. The loose marks towards the top left are perhaps an abandoned attempt at a similar view or details of the stonework, carried over briefly onto folio 50 verso opposite (D31695). The right-hand variant shows the elevation of the tower looking down west the side of square; the spire is continued upwards across the other page, where the foreground of a subsequent Augsburg street scene overlaps with it.

Compare the small elevation of the spire among views in the surrounding valleys on folio 48 recto (D31691); for numerous other views of the mountains and castles in the vicinity, scattered through this sketchbook, see under folio 1 verso (D31598). Turner had more leisure to study the spire when he stayed in the city in 1840, passing south towards Venice, when he made two rooftop studies in watercolour on grey paper, likely his hotel room (Tate D32189, D36152; Turner Bequest CCCXVII 10, CCCLXIV 295).