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 > Naples, Paestum and Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Pizzofalcone and Castel dell'Ovo, Naples 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Pizzofalcone and Castel dell'Ovo, Naples’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Pizzofalcone and Castel dell’Ovo, Naples 1819
D16016
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 53
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘yellow’ and ‘yelw’ and ‘Cream Col’ underneath sketch of buildings bottom right
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘53’ bottom left, inverted and ‘245’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 53’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch represents a view from the west of the Pizzofalcone Hill and the waterfront near Castel dell’Ovo, also known as the Borgo di Chiaia.1 The buildings on the left-hand side of the composition are the military barracks of the Gran Quartiere di Pizzofalcone (present-day Caserma Nino Bixio), whilst at the foot of the hill on the right is the dome of the Chiesa Crocelle a Chiatamone. In the top right-hand corner Turner has added a study of the Castel dell’Ovo itself which, if he had not run out of space on the page, ought to appear to the right of the main vista. A small part of the drawing spills over onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 54 verso (D10615; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 52a). This part of the Neapolitan coastline was transformed during the late ninteenth century by the construction of the Via Partenope. A similar view can be seen in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15635; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 40a).
1
Compare a watercolour by William Marlow (1740–1813), Borgo di Chiaia, Naples (Leeds City Art Galleries), reproduced in Francis W. Hawcroft, Travels in Italy 1776–1783: Based on the “Memoirs” of Thomas Jones, exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1988, p.86, no.94, and a related drawing, Naples (Tate T09185).
Verso:
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Nicola Moorby
July 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Pizzofalcone and Castel dell’Ovo, Naples 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-pizzofalcone-and-castel-dellovo-naples-r1137940, accessed 26 April 2024.