Hakewill’s comments on Venice continue on folio 25 (
D13905). Although Turner visited the city on the outward journey to Rome, rather than the return leg recommended by Hakewill, these comments would still have provided useful information on sightseeing and accommodation. As Ian Warrell has documented, the Albergo Leon Bianco was a hotel situated on the Grand Canal near the Palazzo Grimani and Rialto bridge.
2 It was very popular with nineteenth-century British tourists, including the artist Clarkson Stanfield (1793–1867). Hakewill further recommends visiting the Doge’s [Viceroy] Palace and the Sala dei Maggior Consiglio [Hall of the Great Council], as well as pointing the way to two key Venetian works of art: Tintoretto’s (1518–94)
The Miracle of Saint Mark Freeing the Slave, 1548, in the Accademia; and
St Peter Martyr, 1530 (destroyed by fire in 1867), by Titian (circa 1490–1576). He erroneously suggests that the latter was located in the Basilica of the Frari (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari).
3 Turner, however, has crossed through the word ‘Frati [i.e. Frari]’ and correctly noted its actual location, the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo.
4 Turner was in fact already familiar with both of the paintings, having seen them amongst the spoliated works of Napoleon in the Louvre, in 1802.
5 Furthermore, he had discussed the use of colour in both in Lecture V of his Royal Academy series in 1818.
6 Nevertheless, he seized the opportunity to see them both again. A copy of the Titian can be seen in the
Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate
D14390; Turner Bequest CLXXV 40a). Meanwhile, Sir Thomas Lawrence reported in a letter to Antonio Canova that Turner had seen the Tintoretto again in the Accademia, and unlike most visitors, had preferred it to Titian’s famous
Assumption altarpiece, at that time on display in the same room.
7
