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 > Remarks (Italy) Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches and Notes Relating to Paintings in the Galleria Borghese and the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sketches and Notes Relating to Paintings in the Galleria Borghese and the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Verso:
Sketches and Notes Relating to Paintings in the Galleria Borghese and the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome 1819
D16767
Turner Bequest CXCIII 3 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 115 x 94 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The schematic drawing at the top of the page represents a rough study of the background of Titian’s famous painting, Sacred and Profane Love circa 1513–14, in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.1 For another sketch and a fuller description see folio 5 (D16768; Turner Bequest CXCIII 4).
In the centre of the page is a study of a painting by Barocci Federico (?1535–1612), Aeneas Fleeing from Troy 1598, also in the Galleria Borghese.2 The drawing is labelled ‘Barrochio Aeneas and M’, and is further annotated with notes, ‘[?Aen]’ and ‘[?White]’. Cecilia Powell has suggested that the fiery colours enlivening the figures of Aeneas and his family may have struck a chord with Turner’s own approach to the use of emotive colouring within his paintings.3
At the bottom of the page is part of a handwritten note referring to the Aurora of Guido Reni (1575–1642), a fresco dating from 1613–14 which decorates the ceiling of the Casino dell’Aurora in the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome. The inscription reads: ‘of the dark cloud above, more than its | sun quality. the cloud rather ylo as | the figures are – ’. See folio 4 (D16766; Turner Bequest CXCIII 3) for the first part of the inscription and further discussion of Turner’s comments.

Nicola Moorby
February 2011

1
Powell 1984, p.433. Reproduced in Paola della Pergola, Galleria Borghese: I Dipinti, Rome 1955–9, vol.I, no.233.
2
Powell 1984, p.433. Reproduced in Pergola 1955–9, vol.II, no.99, fig.100 and Powell 1987, p.[69], fig.73.
3
Powell 1987, pp.68–[9].

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches and Notes Relating to Paintings in the Galleria Borghese and the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2011, 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-sketches-and-notes-relating-to-paintings-in-the-galleria-r1138542, accessed 25 April 2024.