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 > Pompeii, Amalfi, &c., Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Triangular Forum and the Great Theatre, Pompeii 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Triangular Forum and the Great Theatre, Pompeii’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 16 Verso:
The Triangular Forum and the Great Theatre, Pompeii 1819
D15767
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 16 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Triangular Forum in Pompeii is a piazza located at the southern edge of the city adjacent to the theatre area. This sketch depicts the view looking north towards Vesuvius with the back of the grand Ionic entrance (propylaeum), at the vanishing point of the composition and the ruined Doric portico of the Forum on the left. To the right is the semi-circular arena of the Great Theatre, see folio 25 verso (D15785). Alternative studies of the Triangular Forum, including the front of the propylaeum, can be found on folios 14 verso, 16, 24–24 verso, 26 verso (D15763, D15766, D15782–D15783, D15787). For further sketches and a general discussion of Turner’s visit to Pompeii see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
September 2010

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘The Triangular Forum and the Great Theatre, Pompeii 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-the-triangular-forum-and-the-great-theatre-pompeii-r1138233, accessed 20 April 2024.