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 > Albano, Nemi, Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Four Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Verso:
Four Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica, Rome 1819
D15402
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 55 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains four studies of the so-called Temple of Minerva Medica, a ruin on the Esquiline Hill, which today stands between the present-day via Giovanni Giolotti, and the railway tracks leading into Termini station. Three of the sketches depict the Temple in relation to its surroundings, showing the arches of an adjacent aqueduct, probably the Aqua Claudia which joined the nearby Porta Maggiore (also known as the Porta Praenestina). The fourth sketch is a rough view of the interior of the Temple showing the partial remains of the vaulted ceiling.
For a general discussion and further studies of the Temple see folio 56 (D15401, CLXXXII 55).

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Four Sketches of the Temple of Minerva Medica, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2008, 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-four-sketches-of-the-temple-of-minerva-medica-rome-r1132697, accessed 20 April 2024.