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 Molina with the Ponte del Diavolo and the ?Church of the Madonna delle Neve 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Molina with the Ponte del Diavolo and the ?Church of the Madonna delle Neve’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 32 Recto:
Molina with the Ponte del Diavolo and the ?Church of the Madonna delle Neve 1819
D15797
Turner Bequest CLXXXV 32
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘W’ and ‘W’ within sketch of bridges
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘278’ bottom right and ‘32’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXV 32’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketch depicts a view of Molina, a town which lies in a valley (Valle Bonea) on the inland road between Naples and Salerno. Visible in the background is the Ponte del Diavolo aqueduct, whilst the building dominating the foreground is the Church of the Madonna delle Neve (or Santa Maria delle Neve). Both church and bridge were destroyed by flood-waters in 1954.1 For further sketches of Molina see folios 8 verso–9 and 32 verso–33 (D15752–D15753 and D15798–D15799), and also the Naples, Paestum, Rome sketchbook (Tate D15988, D15991 and D15994; Turner Bequest CLXXXVI 39, 40a, 42).

Nicola Moorby
October 2010

1
The church can be seen in two late nineteenth/early twentieth century photographs from the Alinari Archives, nos. BGA-F-010314–0000 and CGA-F-005113–0000, reproduced on-line at <www.alinariarchives.it>, accessed October 2010.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Molina with the Ponte del Diavolo and the ?Church of the Madonna delle Neve 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 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-molina-with-the-ponte-del-diavolo-and-the-church-of-the-r1138264, accessed 26 April 2024.