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 Temple of Apollo, Pompeii 1819

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Temple of Apollo, Pompeii’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
Temple of Apollo, Pompeii 1819
D15780
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘[?wreath] | 9 68’ top centre, and ‘9 Yellw’ and ‘18 [...]’ within sketch
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘23’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 23’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The Temple of Apollo in Pompeii was excavated in 1817, two years before Turner visited the site during a sojourn in Naples.1 This sketch depicts a view of the temple from inside the quadriporticus (colonnaded atrium) looking north towards the altar and the steps leading up to the podium and cella. The statues in the bottom right-hand corner of the composition can now be found in the National Archeological Museum, Naples. Visible in the background to the right is the western edge of the Forum, whilst dominating the distance on the left is the vast silhouette of Vesuvius. For an alternative study of the temple see folio 26 verso (D15787). For further sketches and a general discussion of Turner’s visit to Pompeii see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
September 2010

1
Pompeii site number VII.7.32. In many nineteenth-century illustrations the site is known as the Temple of Bacchus.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Temple of Apollo, 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-temple-of-apollo-pompeii-r1138246, accessed 18 September 2024.