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 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13945
Turner Bequest CLXXII 8
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXII 8’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
Tombs | Marcellus di Corvi Capitoline hill Agustus | and Hadrian. Caius Cestus | Moles Hadriani | Castel St Angelo | Palaces | Quirinal . – (Monte Cavallo Vatican Barberini | Odescalchi and Farnesi. Medici Doria Claudes | Ruspoli Staircase pictures Orsini. in the theatre of | Marcellus. Guistiniani on Nero’s Baths Alteri | Pictures. Ciciaporci. Julio Romano’s Architecture | Corsini on the Janiculum view of Rome – | Farnesiana Stada Lungarno pictures by Raffaelo | Farnese Mic Angleo design. Dominico and Annibal | Carraci – Costaguti, Albano Domenichino | Guercino. Pal Mattei. Borghese – Spada | Pompey’s Statue Barberini Colonna | giallo antico | yellow marble | Pontifical Palaces. | The Lateran. Quirinal. Vatican 1200 1000 broad | Bramante Raffaelo Fontano Maderno and Bernini. | Scala Regia from the Statue of Constantine Vasari | Vasari. entrance of Gregory II into Roman battle | of Lepanto massacre of St Bartholomew Cappella | Paolina Cappella Sistina Michael Angelo | Sala Ducale to Loggi di Raffaelo the 3 sides of the court | of St Damasus Camere Raffaelo Sala Constantino | St Heliodorus Atila and Leo. Miracle of Bolsena | Peter from Prison Camera the 3 School of Athens | debate of the Sacraments Judgments of Solomon
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s various Roman sketchboks, such as the Castel St Angelo and the palaces of Rome, the frescoes by Annibale Carracci in the Palazzo Farnese, and the Loggia of Raphael in the Vatican. Others such as the description of Raphael’s frescoes in the Stanze of the Vatican record points of interest to an artist, even though they are not visually represented amongst Turner’s sketches.
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.386–7.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.14–52.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, 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-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138766, accessed 20 April 2024.