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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Perspective lectures c.1809-28 > Perspective Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Notes on Sculptural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on Sculptural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 35 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: Notes on Sculptural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source circa 1809
D07411
Turner Bequest CVIII 35
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘35’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 35’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with the following notes:
The proportion of the Trajan column is of the | same order increasing in size as it receded | from the eye in a spiral line but not all | of either to the proportions of the component | parts or the spiral line the Antonine | pillar the same excepting the collosal | figure of Fame in the second tier of | Figures the [...] of each was supp | to be devoted to collosal figure of [...] | which Per[...] has most in[...] | given in the Trajan which in[...]ed
The source of these passages on proportion in relation to architecture (including the Trajan and Antonine Columns in Rome) remains unidentified.1 The notes run continuously from the present page to folio 37 verso (D07411–D07416). Trajan’s Column also features on folios 34 recto, 35 verso, 36 verso, 37 recto, 37 verso and 61 verso (D07409, D07412, D07414–D07416, D07459); see also the entry for folio 33 verso (D07408). The Antonine Column is mentioned again on folios 35 verso (D07412) and 37 verso.

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
Davies 1994, p.288.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on Sculptural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source c.1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-inscription-by-turner-notes-on-sculptural-proportion-and-r1136607, accessed 25 April 2024.