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 Villa Pausilypon, Posillipo; and a Distant View of Vesuvius 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Villa Pausilypon, Posillipo; and a Distant View of Vesuvius’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 79 Verso:
Villa Pausilypon, Posillipo; and a Distant View of Vesuvius 1819
D16062
Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 77 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Vesuvius belongs to the 1’ above line of horizon on left, and ‘2’ top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of the main sketch on this page is the remains of the villa of Publius Vedius Pollo, a wealthy first-century Roman ‘equestrian’, infamous for his cruelty to his slaves. Also known as the Villa Imperiale di Pausilypon, the ancient ruins stand above the rocky coastline of Posillipo, west of Naples, near the island of Gaiola. Turner’s sketch looks west towards the high narrow cliff face of Cala Trentaremi beyond.
As the artist’s inscription points out, the silhouette of Vesuvius on the left-hand side of the sheet is not part of the same view but belongs to the composition inscribed ‘1’ on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 80 (D16063; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 78).

Nicola Moorby
August 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Villa Pausilypon, Posillipo; and a Distant View of Vesuvius 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-villa-pausilypon-posillipo-and-a-distant-view-of-vesuvius-r1137986, accessed 18 September 2024.