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 Part of a View of the Bay of Pozzuoli with the Plain of Bagnoli and a Distant View of Pozzuoli 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Part of a View of the Bay of Pozzuoli with the Plain of Bagnoli and a Distant View of Pozzuoli’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 70 Recto:
Part of a View of the Bay of Pozzuoli with the Plain of Bagnoli and a Distant View of Pozzuoli 1819
D16043
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 68
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘white’ within sketch of mountains, top right
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in red ink ‘68’ bottom left, inverted and ‘245’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVI 68’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch represents part of a view across the Bay of Pozzuoli, a picturesque stretch of coast to the west of Naples which forms part of the volcanic landscape of the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean or Burning Fields). The vista looks north-west across the Plain of Bagnoli,1 and Turner’s location appears to be above a small church, probably from a viewpoint near the Grotto of Seiano, a Roman tunnel which led directly through the westernmost tip of the Posillipo Hill. Visible in the distance at the end of the curving sweep of the shoreline is the coastal town of Pozzuoli itself with the ruined Roman breakwater, popularly known as the Bridge of Caligula. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 69 verso (D16042; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 67a). A view of the small island of Nisida from the same vantage point can be seen on folios 70 verso–71 (D16044–D16045; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 68a–69), whilst similar prospects of the Bay of Pozzuoli can be found on folio 82 verso (D16068; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 80a), as well as in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (see Tate D15667; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 55a) and the Naples: Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16105; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 17).

Nicola Moorby
July 2010

1
During the early twentieth century the Bagnoli plain was heavily industrialised and is today the site of a museum park known as ‘La Città della Scienza’ (City of Science).

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of a View of the Bay of Pozzuoli with the Plain of Bagnoli and a Distant View of Pozzuoli 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-part-of-a-view-of-the-bay-of-pozzuoli-with-the-plain-of-r1137967, accessed 26 April 2024.