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 > Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Ponte dell'Acquoria 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Ponte dell'Acquoria’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Recto:
View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Ponte dell’Acquoria 1819
D15012
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 46
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?Stony]’, ‘Gold’, ‘[?Gold S]’ within sketch of mountains and ‘Olives’ in centre of sketch
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘46’ bottom left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 46’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts part of panoramic view of Tivoli from the river valley to the north. Turner’s viewpoint appears to be a position on the road leading down the hill from the so-called Tempio della Tosse towards the river below. The drawing continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 45 verso (D15011), but visible on this side is the winding course of the river and the surrounding Tiburtine hills. In the bottom left-hand corner is the Ponte dell’Acquoria (Bridge of the Golden Water), a Roman crossing which carried the ancient Via Tiburtina over the River Aniene. As Turner’s sketch shows, the bridge was comprised of a single surviving stone arch with a temporary wooden structure crossing the remaining piers.1 The area is now dominated by an electrical power plant.
An alternative study of the bridge can be seen on folio 59 verso (D15037), whilst more detailed drawings of the view can be found in the Tivoli sketchbook (see Tate D15472, D15482, D15487, D15493, D15508, D15509; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 6, 16, 21, 26, 41, 41a).

Nicola Moorby
February 2010

1
Compare a print by Johann Christian Reinhart (1761–1847), Ponte Acquoreo a Tivoli, 1798, see: http://www.galerie-fach.de/produkt/2009_96/kd12796.html, accessed February 2010.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Tivoli from the Valley, with the Ponte dell’Acquoria 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2010, 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-view-of-tivoli-from-the-valley-with-the-ponte-dellacquoria-r1137644, accessed 23 April 2024.