J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

As Cecilia Powell first identified, the subject of the main sketch on this page is the façade of the Palazzo Uguccioni, a sixteenth-century palace in Piazza della Signoria, Florence.1 Based upon the principles of the Roman High Renaissance, the building is highly unusual for Florentine architecture. Turner may have been interested in its stylistic similarity to the work of Bramante, and particularly Raphael.2 Despite the schematic nature of the drawing, the artist has clearly recorded the key details of the three levels of the building’s elevation.

Also on the page is a rough study of part of another building on the Piazza della Signoria with crenellations, possibly the Palazzo Vecchio.