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

Part of Turner’s trip to Tivoli in 1819 included a detour to the Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa), an elaborate palace and garden complex approximately one mile south-west of the town. He used his visit to make several swift studies of the key buildings of interest, see folio 32 verso (D14985). Cecilia Powell first correctly identified the subjects of the sketches on this page.1 In the bottom left-hand corner is the Hall of the Philosophers (Sala dei Filosofi), a large hall with an apsed end adorned with niches for statues.2 Although very rough in execution, the drawings at the top and bottom right-hand side of the sheet appear to depict the Pecile (or Poikile Stoa), a recreation of the Stoà Poikile in Athens. Originally a vast four-sided double portico surrounding a garden and pool, the surviving fragments include a long wall along the northern edge, leading to the Hall of the Philosophers. Turner also seems to have sketched some floral motifs in the top left-hand corner, possibly ornamental details from the stuccowork of the vaults of the Large Baths or another part of the Villa.