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 Including Frascati and the Villa Mondragone 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Four Sketches Including Frascati and the Villa Mondragone’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Verso:
Four Sketches Including Frascati and the Villa Mondragone 1819
D15451
Turner Bequest CLXXXII 80 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 189 x 113 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?noceno]’ and ‘[?nocceno]’ underneath second sketch from top, and ‘avenue’ to left and ‘Monte Dragone’ underneath third sketch from top, and ‘Frascati’ and ‘olives’ bottom
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page contains four sketches drawn with the book held in portrait format. Two refer to Frascati, a town approximately twelve miles south-east of Rome famous for its many villas built for the Papal nobility during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inscription on the second sketch from the bottom identifies the Villa ‘Monte Dragone’, or Mondragone, a name which refers to the heraldic dragon in the coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII, see also folio 15 verso (D15322). The estate is situated close to another villa, the Villa Taverna (also known as the Villa Parisi), although the prospect presented here has not yet been identified. Meanwhile, the view at the bottom of the page possibly also depicts the Villa Mondragone, seen from Monte Porzio Catone, with Frascati indicated but not delineated on the lower ground on the right, and the horizon of the sea in the distance.
It is not known to what the inscriptions in the second sketch from the top refer but the drawing seems to depict a clearing amidst some trees. The view at the top is also unidentified although the dome visible through the trees is possibly the Church of San Tommaso di Villanova at Castel Gandolfo.

Nicola Moorby
May 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Four Sketches Including Frascati and the Villa Mondragone 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-including-frascati-and-the-villa-mondragone-r1132746, accessed 25 April 2024.