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 Castel Nuovo, Naples, with Vesuvius in the Distance 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castel Nuovo, Naples, with Vesuvius in the Distance’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 69 Verso:
Castel Nuovo, Naples, with Vesuvius in the Distance 1819
D15693
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 67 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Castel Nuovo is a large fortress also known as the Maschio Angioino, which stands beside the quayside near the main port in Naples. Originally dating from the thirteenth century, the castle with its five cylindrical towers has been extended and rebuilt a number of times. This sketch depicts a view of the western side of the building with four of the five towers visible.1 The campanile which rises above the main entry point, the Arco di Trionfo, is no longer extant, and neither are the lower walls surrounding the castle complex. Rising in the background is the unmistakable silhouette of Vesuvius and Monte Somma.
Further studies of the Castel Nuovo can be seen on folios 59–59 verso, 64 verso–65 verso (D15670–D15671, D15683–D15685; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 57–57a, 62a–63a).

Nicola Moorby
June 2010

1
Finberg incorrectly suggested that the sketch showed another of Naples’s castles, the Castel Capuano, Finberg 1909, p.545.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Castel Nuovo, Naples, with Vesuvius in the Distance 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-castel-nuovo-naples-with-vesuvius-in-the-distance-r1138153, accessed 19 September 2024.