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

Turner made a number of sketches of the Via Appia Antica, the ancient Roman thoroughfare from Rome to Brindisi in south-east Italy. Known as ‘the Queen of Roads’, the Appian Way was famous for its characteristic straightness and the numerous tombs and catacombs lining the route. This page records two such landmarks, both situated approximately two miles outside of the city: above, the Circus of Maxentius; beneath, two views of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella.

When Turner saw the Circus of Maxentius in 1819 he would have known it by its previous name, the Circus of Caracalla, so called owing to a statue of that Emperor found nearby. Hence his inscription next to the drawing of ‘The Consolo Caracalla’. Excavation of the site in 1825, however, uncovered a Latin dedication which revealed its connection to the Emperor Maxentius and his son Romulus.1 The ruined complex dates from the fourth century and comprises an imperial villa, a mausoleum and a large arena for racing and other games.2 Turner’s sketch shows the circular towers at the ‘oppidum’, the west end of the circus, as seen from the Appian Way. In between these towers were the ‘carceres’, the starting gates for horses and chariots, whilst around the remaining three sides was arranged the graduated seating for up to 10,000 spectators. The drawing is interrupted by a faint vertical line delineating the division between the two sketches below and suggests that Turner drew this scene after the ones beneath, looking back down the Via Appia towards the direction of Rome.

Three hundred yards further from the Circus lies the Tomb of Cecilia (or Cæcilia) Metella, a large circular mausoleum and one of Rome’s most celebrated ancient monuments. The tomb of travertine marble was built to hold the ashes of a Roman noblewoman, the daughter of a consul and wife to the son of Crassus. Later, in the Middle Ages, it was incorporated into the fortress of the Caetani family, the remains of which can still be seen on the south-east corner of the tower. Turner copied an image of the tomb in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook, after John ‘Warwick’ Smith’ (see Tate D13966; Turner Bequest CLXXII 19).

Turner’s two views at the bottom of the page show the approach to the tomb from a position close to the Church of San Sebastiano, with the right-hand sketch observed at a closer distance than the left-hand one. The arches visible on the left of the road beneath the tomb belong to the Circus Maxentius. The viewpoint illustrates just how straight the Appian Way was; the line of the road disappears directly into the distance, almost to the vanishing point. The images (particularly the right) appear to have formed the basis of a later watercolour, Tomb of Cecilia Metella, Rome 1830 (Manchester City Galleries, W1214), ³ an illustration for Canto IV (stanzas xcix–cv), of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage which reads:

The composition repeats the dramatically receding road and the buildings flanking either side of the road. Some details in the finished painting clarify points only half seen in the sketches. For example, the architectural feature at the top of the wall on the far right of the right-hand sketch is revealed within the watercolour to be a large decorative urn. The view also repeats almost exactly a drawing done by James Hakewill in 1817 with which Turner would certainly have been familiar.4 He had already completed a watercolour of the tomb based upon another drawing by Hakewill, prior to his 1819 Italian tour.5

Further views of the Tomb can be found on folios 47 verso, 48 and 48 verso (D15385–D15387).