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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Copies of Italian Paintings; and Notes by James Hakewill on Florence and Parma c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Copies of Italian Paintings; and Notes by James Hakewill on Florence and Parma’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Copies of Italian Paintings; and Notes by James Hakewill on Florence and Parma circa 1819
D36333
Turner Bequest CCCLXVIII B
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘St Mark’ top right and various colour notes
Inscribed by James Hakewill in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white laid paper, 310 x 213 mm
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘ccclxviii.B’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXVIII B’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This loose sheet contains extensive inscriptions by James Hakewill (1778–1843), an architect and artist with whom Turner collaborated on an engraving project, the Picturesque Tour of Italy, in 1818–19, just prior to Turner’s first tour of Italy.1 For a more detailed discussion see the introduction to the Route to Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXI). Hakewill’s notes pertain to recommended sights and works of art in Florence and Parma, both of which Turner passed through en route during his homeward journey from Rome in 1819–20. The inscriptions read as follows:
Chiesa della Nunziata – Andrea del Sarto in the cloisters – | Chapel “dei Carmelitani” Masaccio | Tomb in Santa Croce | M. Angelo’s House | Corsini | Ricardi | Cathedral – Bronze doors at the baptistery adjoining ^near (Ghiberti) – Campanile or belfry of variegated marble by Giotto – | Statue before the Palazzo Vecchio – John di Bologna – Baccio Bandinelli – | M. Angelo – B. Cellini &c &c – | Medici chapel full of M. Angelo’s works – | Parma | The Academy Correggio – St Jerome, Descent from the Cross, Madonna della Scodella | a beautiful unfinished Fresco Madonna [...] – | Cinque Santi by Raffael – Funeral | of Madonna & another great painter Ludovico Carracci – A Madonna crowned | by Christ a fragment of fresco brot [sic] from St John’s by Correggio – The Theatre | wt the Church of St John. An immense Fresco over the choir by Annibal | Carracci [...] Correggio whose work was destroyed when the choir was destroyed | A St John small – | by Correggio to the left & there are three small frescos | by Parmiggiano under the arch of the first and second chapel on the left – | at the church of the Steccada [sic] the Moses of Parmiggiano (one of Gray’s | models for The Bard) on the left hand opposite the organ – point of | sight from nearly the centre of the church. In an angle over an arch | Convent of the St Paul The Diana &c... Correggio – At the Annunziata | an annunciation. Corregio nearly obliterated – | Palazzo dei Giardini – by the Carracci – | Palace in the city – fine modern theatre on antique model. Antiquities found in | the buried ancient town of Velleia. –
The page shows signs of having been folded and it seems likely therefore that Turner carried it with him during his Italian travels tucked inside a book or pocket. Surrounding and in some cases overlapping Hakewill’s notes are several on-the-spot pencil sketches by the artist. Although these studies are now too faint to be identified they appear to represent rough copies of the compositions of Renaissance paintings or frescoes. The drawings are variously annotated with colour notes and in one instance are labelled ‘St Mark’.
In addition to this page of notes, Hakewill also filled the Route to Rome sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CLXXI) with advice useful for Turner’s trip. Further comments on Florence can be found here (see Tate D13878–D13880; Turner Bequest CLXXI 11–12), as well as on Correggio and Parma (see Tate D13897; Turner Bequest CLXXI 21). Sketches by Turner relating to Santa Croce and the Basilica delle Santissima Annunziata in Florence can be seen in the Rome and Florence sketchbook (see Tate D16551; Turner Bequest CXCI 35a), whilst views of Parma including the cathedral and baptistery can be found within the Return from Italy sketchbook (see for example Tate D16650; Turner Bequest CXCII 5a).
1
For a full account of the collaboration see Cecilia Powell, ‘Topography, Imagination and Travel: Turner’s Relationship with James Hakewill’, Art History, vol.5, no.4, December 1982, pp.408–25.
Technical notes:
The centre of the sheet bears a large watermark of a shield with three fleur-de-lys topped by a crown and ball.
Verso:
Blank except for an inscription by the artist in pencil ‘[?Boneschalere] bottom centre, parallel with right-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXVIII B’ bottom right

Nicola Moorby
May 2011

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Copies of Italian Paintings; and Notes by James Hakewill on Florence and Parma c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-copies-of-italian-paintings-and-notes-by-james-hakewill-on-r1129547, accessed 20 April 2024.