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 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Cascatelli, Tivoli, from the Valley 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Cascatelli, Tivoli, from the Valley’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 37 Recto:
The Cascatelli, Tivoli, from the Valley 1819
D15504
Turner Bequest CLXXXIII 37
Pencil and grey watercolour wash on white wove paper, 200 x 253 mm
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in faded red ink ‘37’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge, and by an unknown hand in pencil ‘37’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIII 37’ bottom left, descending left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s exploration of Tivoli included a large number of landscape sketches drawn from the river valley to the north. This page contains a view of the cascatelli (or cascatelle), the lesser cascades of the Aniene, where a branch of the river flowed from an underground passage and emerged in streams down the slopes at the northern tip of the town. The view is drawn from the floor of the valley looking east towards Monte Catillo, with the town at the top on the right-hand side. Silhouetted along the horizon is a medieval watch-tower near the substructures of the Piazza dell’Olmo (present-day Piazza Domenico Tani), and the campanile of the Cathedral (Duomo) of San Lorenzo, whilst in the centre of the vista are the falls of the cascatelli, spilling down the sides of the promontory. Visible in the distance of the opposite side of the gorge is the Convent of Sant’Antonio, also known as the Villa d’Orazio (Villa of Horace). Like many drawings within this sketchbook, the composition has been executed over a washed grey background. Turner has created highlights within the work by rubbing or lifting out the wash to reveal the white paper beneath, principally to create the silvery streams of the cascades and to define elements of the architecture above.
Similar views can be seen on folios 29, 30, 38 (D15496, D15497, D15505), and in the Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (Tate D15016–D40926; Turner Bequest 48–52a). Turner also depicted the cascatelli looking west towards the Santuario di Ercole Vincitore, see folio 3 (D15469). Today the smaller cascades have disappeared due to the divergence of the River Aniene away from the centre of Tivoli, and have been replaced by the great waterfall of Villa Gregoriana.
Verso:
Blank, except for traces of grey watercolour wash

Nicola Moorby
February 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Cascatelli, Tivoli, from the Valley 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-cascatelli-tivoli-from-the-valley-r1137780, accessed 19 April 2024.