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

The upper study on this page marks the first appearance in the sketchbook of Pisa, one of a dozen works depicting the city. While fairly dispersed, these studies tend to appear in the latter half of the sketchbook: see folios 31 recto, 37 recto, 54 verso, 55 recto and verso, 59 verso, 60 recto, 91 recto and verso, 92 verso, 93 recto and 94 recto (D21472, D21484, D21518–D21520, D21527–D21528; D21580–D21581, D21583–D21584, D21586). This was Turner’s first visit to the city; he pursued an alternative route during his first major Italian tour of 1819–20, one that took him via Florence on the return leg from Rome, but without straying as far west as Pisa.

As Cecilia Powell has commented, Pisa had ‘long fascinated British visitors, partly for the curious spectacle of its leaning tower, partly for its richly exotic style of architecture, partly for its extensive medieval frescoes in the Campo Santo’.1 Judging from the cluster of sketches he produced, Turner was no exception; his visit included a trip to the Duomo complex in the northern part of the city, where he made studious depictions of the cathedral, the baptistry and the leaning tower, including the present example. He also enjoyed the wide vistas and shifting vantage points of the Lungarni, the long thoroughfares bordering the River Arno. The Logge di Banchi, the Palazzo Pretorio and the Church of Santa Maria della Spina are among the riverside buildings that caught his eye.

The upper sketch is inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. As identified by Turner’s inscription ‘[?Cathedral near] Pisa’, it offers a north-facing view of the Piazza del Duomo, now widely known as the Piazza dei Miracoli. The view takes in the three structures that make up the Duomo complex: from left to right, the baptistry, the cathedral, and the famous leaning tower – the freestanding campanile of the cathedral. Romanesque in style, they were erected between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, with the tower the last to be constructed. Further studies of the Duomo complex appear on folios 55 verso, 59 verso and 60 recto (D21520, D21527–D21528). This depiction of Pisa is out of sequence with the overall itinerary embodied by the sketchbook (see the Introduction), which begins near Genoa and ends near Livorno and Florence.

The lower study, executed with the sketchbook turned upright, appears to derive from an earlier stage of the artist’s journey as he travelled along the Ligurian coast. A belltower or watchtower lies at the centre, next to a single tree and enclosed by steep cliffs.