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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The So-Called Temple of Vesta, Tivoli and the Valle d'Inferno 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Recto:
The So-Called Temple of Vesta, Tivoli and the Valle d’Inferno 1819
D15095
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 88
Pencil on white wove paper, 186 x 112 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘88’ top left, ascending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 82’ top right, ascending right-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is the so-called Temple of Vesta, a circular ruin dating from the first century BC, which stands on the edge of the gorge at the northern edge of the town. Turner has used the full length of the sketchbook page to capture the dramatic position of the structure, and the sheer, craggy drop below. The campanile to the left belongs to the Chiesa di San Giorgio, a church which until the end of the nineteenth century incorporated the ruins of the so-called Temple of the Sibyl. The prospect used to include the ‘Grand Cascade’, the former falling point of the River Aniene where it plunged into the valley popularly known as the Valle d’Inferno (Valley of Hell) and the cave known as the Grotto of Neptune. In 1826, however, the course of the river was diverted away from the residential district. Consequently, the town’s many waterfalls, including the Grand Cascade near to the Temple of Vesta, were replaced instead by the great waterfall in the Villa Gregoriana to the north-east of the town. A related view can be found on folio 65 verso (D15049), and in the Tivoli sketchbook (Tate D15518; Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 47). For a detailed description and further sketches of the Temple of Vesta see folio 3 verso (D14938).
At the bottom of the page, parallel with the gutter, is part of the landscape view from the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 88 verso (D15094; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 87a). The sketch depicts the medieval watch-tower at the north-eastern tip of Tivoli, overlooking the river valley to the north of the town.

Nicola Moorby
February 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The So-Called Temple of Vesta, Tivoli and the Valle d’Inferno 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-the-so-called-temple-of-vesta-tivoli-and-the-valle-dinferno-r1137730, accessed 19 September 2024.