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

This study depicts the Porta San Giovanni in Rome, as tentatively identified by Finberg in his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, and later confirmed by Cecilia Powell.1 Set within the Aurelian walls, this late sixteenth-century city gate lies south-east of central Rome.2 It derives its name from the nearby Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.

While Turner composed a more distant view of the Porta San Giovanni on folio 18 recto (D21885), this oblique perspective shows the travertine arch to the left from closer proximity. The masonry is swiftly outlined, including the commemorative plaque dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII, for whom the arch was built. To the right, the Aurelian walls recede into the distance. Turner’s viewpoint was from the Piazzale Appio, looking north. The Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, to Turner’s left, is cropped out of view.

Beneath is a minor study of distant buildings and towers. Both views are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation.