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

The view is from Trento’s present Piazza Raffaello Sanzio, dominated by the Castello del Buonconsiglio, a fundamentally medieval fortress, with Renaissance and Baroque additions, now preserved as a museum. The imposing north end of the main part of the castle, topped by the Torre d’Augusto, high to the south-east towards the right here, is seen from a different viewpoint on folio 38 verso opposite (D31672). The right-hand side of the sketch appears jumbled, as Turner attempted to include the north front of the Palazzo Trautmannsdorf Saracini, which features a balcony over its rusticated Baroque doorway, in the foreground. He had to resort to a continuation at the top right to show the beginning of the austere Renaissance range to the right of the castellated gable immediately below.

On the left, the view ranges north up towards the Fiemme Dolomites along what is now the Via Alessandro Manzoni, where the tall turret survives at the corner; the low section between it and the bastion at the bottom centre does not survive, with Modernist school buildings now occupying that part of the site. For other views of Trento in this sketchbook and its place in Turner’s itinerary, see under folio 37 recto (D31669).