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 > Gandolfo to Naples Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Terracina, from the Temple of Jupiter Anxur 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Terracina, from the Temple of Jupiter Anxur’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Terracina, from the Temple of Jupiter Anxur 1819
D15595
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 20 b
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Inscribed by an unknown hand in red ink ‘20 b’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIV 20b’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject of this sketch is Terracina, a town on the Tyrrhenian coast, approximately half-way between Rome and Naples. Turner seems to have found time aside from his journey south on the Via Appia in order to ascend the heights of Monte Sant’Angelo above the town, and to enjoy the panoramic prospect looking west across the bay towards the distinctive promontory of Monte Circeo, and on the right, the Monte Leano. In the central middle distance of this view is the medieval Rocca Traversa (also known as the Castle of Frangipane). The arcades in the right-hand foreground meanwhile represent the substructures of the ruined Tempio di Giove Anxur (Temple of Jupiter Anxur), sometimes erroneously known as the Palace of Theodoric, a first-century BC Roman sanctuary built upon a terrace at the summit of the cliff. Related sketches can be found on folios 20–20 verso, 21 verso and 23 (D15593–D15594, D15596 and D15599; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 20, 20a, 20c and 22).

Nicola Moorby
April 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Terracina, from the Temple of Jupiter Anxur 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-terracina-from-the-temple-of-jupiter-anxur-r1138057, accessed 24 April 2024.