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

Turner’s exploration of Tivoli included a large number of landscape sketches drawn from the valley to the north. This sketch depicts a view of the town from the banks of the River Aniene looking east, an area now dominated by an electrical power plant. The town is silhouetted along the brow of the hill above. Visible landmarks include from left to right: a medieval watch-tower; the substructures supporting the Piazza dell’Olmo (present-day Piazza Domenico Tani); the campanile of the Cathedral (Duomo) of San Lorenzo; the tower of the Santuario di Ercole Vincitore (Sanctuary of Hercules Victor), a ruined Roman temple formerly known as the Villa of Maecenas; the Villa d’Este, with the adjacent campanile of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore; and on the far left, the so-called Tempio della Tosse, a small domed structure believed to be the vestibule of a Roman villa. The ruined arch in the right-hand foreground is part of the Ponte dell’Acquoria (Bridge of the Golden Water), a Roman crossing which carried the ancient Via Tiburtina over the River Aniene (see Tate D15012; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 46). Similar views can be seen on folios 7, 8, 16, 26, and 41 (D15473, D15474, D15482, D15493, D15508), and in the Tivoli and Rome sketchbook (Tate D15033; Turner Bequest CLXXIX 57 verso).