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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Viterbo and Ronciglione Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Rocca dei Borgia and Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Nepi 1828

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Rocca dei Borgia and Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Nepi’ 1828
Folio 30 Recto:
The Rocca dei Borgia and Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Nepi 1828
D21820
Turner Bequest CCXXXVI 30
Pencil on white wove paper, 171 x 125 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘30’ top left, ascending vertically, and ‘173’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVI 30’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, this page contains two views of Nepi, executed with the sketchbook turned vertically.1 At the top of the page is a silhouetted profile of the town from the north-west, the skyline featuring the fifteenth-century fortified castle known as the Rocca dei Borgia to the right, and the spire of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta further left. Below is a more detailed study of a square and cylindrical tower of the Rocca dei Borgia, captured from closer proximity.
This is one of twenty-one works depicting Nepi in the present sketchbook; for further commentary on Turner’s second visit to the town in 1828, together with a list of relevant works, see under folio 12 verso (D21788).
1
Powell 1984, p.437. Roland Courtot, ‘12. Vers Rome: “Carnet de Viterbe et Ronciglione” (TB CCXXXVI)’, Carnets de voyage de Turner, accessed 15 July 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/2312.
Verso:
Blank

Hannah Kaspar
December 2024

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘The Rocca dei Borgia and Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Nepi 1828’, catalogue entry, December 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/the-rocca-dei-borgia-and-cathedral-of-santa-maria-assunta-nepi-r1210589, accessed 02 August 2025.