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 with the So-Called Temple of Vesta and Temple of the Sibyl 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View of Tivoli with the So-Called Temple of Vesta and Temple of the Sibyl’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 80 Verso:
View of Tivoli with the So-Called Temple of Vesta and Temple of the Sibyl 1819
D15078
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 79 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Mi’ and ‘Villa Pisco’ centre left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts a view of Tivoli looking south from the river valley at the north-eastern tip of the town. Dominating the right-hand side of the composition are the temples of the Acropolis: on the left, the circular so-called Temple of Vesta; and on the right, the rectangular Temple of the Sibyl, which until the end of the nineteenth century was incorporated within the Church of San Giorgio. Turner’s viewpoint is from a position below the temples, above the steep drop of the wooded gorge known as the Valle d’Inferno (Valley of Hell). Related sketches can be found on folios 78 verso and 79 verso (D15074 and D15076; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 77a and 78a), and in the Tivoli sketchbook (Tate D15511; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 43).
Turner’s inscription ‘Villa Pisco’ may refer to the Villa of Manlius Vopisco, now part of the Villa Gregoriana.

Nicola Moorby
February 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View of Tivoli with the So-Called Temple of Vesta and Temple of the Sibyl 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-with-the-so-called-temple-of-vesta-and-temple-r1137713, accessed 16 April 2024.