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

As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, the subject of this work is the Palazzo Farnese.1 Also known as Villa Caprarola, this Renaissance palace lies to the north of Caprarola in Viterbo, overlooking the town from an elevated hilltop position.2 Turner depicted this subject in a dozen works in the present sketchbook; see under folio 4 verso (D21772) for an extended commentary and a list of relevant works.

The present example offers a south-facing view from the grand balustraded terrace of the Palazzo Farnese, with three horse-drawn carriages in the foreground. Visible in the distance is town’s central thoroughfare, formerly known as the Via Dritta and since renamed the Via Filippo Nicolai. It was created in the sixteenth century by the architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who also designed much of the Palazzo Farnese, transforming the pentagonal fortifications into a Renaissance villa.3 The distant belltower to the left is the Church of San Michele Arcangelo, and the summit of Monte Soratte lies on the horizon to the left. For further commentary on Monte Soratte and a list of relevant views in the sketchbook, see under folio 27 verso (D21815).

Beneath, inverted relative to the sketch above, is a cursory outline of the winding staircase and a window within the palace’s inner courtyard, known as the Scala Regia.