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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > East Sussex c.1806-20 > Hastings Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes from 'The Elements of Architecture' by Sir Henry Wotton (Inscription by Turner) circa 1809-11

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes from 'The Elements of Architecture' by Sir Henry Wotton (Inscription by Turner)’ circa 1809-11
Folio 90 Verso:
Notes from ‘The Elements of Architecture’ by Sir Henry Wotton (Inscription by Turner) circa 1809–11
D07737
Turner Bequest CXI 90a
Pencil on paper, 88 x 110 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription reads:
The first painters Polygnotus | and Aglaophon are preferred before the | Zeuxes and Parasius are called the| law giver of proportion first in the | disposition of light but Painting | flourish in the days of Philip | Protogenes for diligence Antiphilus | in facility Theon of Samos for strength and Fantasy Apelles grace | Euphranor artisan Calon Egesias | stiff Calamis Polycletus | diligent decency in Polycletus virtue
Jerrold Ziff ascribes this passage (which he does not transcribe) to Franciscus Junius’s Painting of the Ancients (1638). However, the reading given here, together with the notes on adjacent leaves of the sketchbook (see especially the continuation on the recto, D07736), indicates that Turner’s most direct source was Wotton’s book or quotations from it (see folio 89, D07734). In the original text summarised by Turner, Wotton translated Quintilian’s1 ‘famous passage ... touching the characters of the ancient artizans’ (‘“Primi, ... Polygnotus atque Aglaophon ...”’).
As well as reading Wotton and Junius, Turner researched ancient art in the writings of Pliny 2and Giovanni Lomazzo.3

David Blayney Brown
May 2011

1
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (AD circa 35–circa 100), Roman rhetorician and literary critic.
2
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23–79), Roman historian.
3
See Ziff 1984, pp.45–9.

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Notes from ‘The Elements of Architecture’ by Sir Henry Wotton (Inscription by Turner) c.1809–11’, 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/notes-from-the-elements-of-architecture-by-sir-henry-wotton-inscription-by-turner-r1131224, accessed 25 April 2024.