Joseph Mallord William Turner Two views of the Aqueduct south of Loreto, with Recanati in the Distance 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Verso:
Two views of the Aqueduct south of Loreto, with Recanati in the Distance 1819
D14676
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 12 a
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 12 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 186 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.521 as ‘Two landscapes, with aqueducts (?)’.
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.[120] under no.331.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.185 under no.331.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.94, 408, as ‘The aqueduct between Loreto and Recanati, with Recanati in the distance’.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.26 note 48.
These two sketches depict the view towards Recanati, a small town approximately three miles south-west from Loreto which is built along the crest of a hill. In the foreground can be seen a sixteenth-century aqueduct which stretched across the valley between the two locations and which supplied water from the mountains to Loreto. The aqueduct and a series of underground tunnels were installed to service the needs of the large number of pilgrims who travelled to Loreto every year to visit the Shrine of the Holy House. Built by Giovanni Fontana and Carlo Maderno during the papacy of Paul V (1552–1621), the remains can still be seen today to the left of the road leaving Loreto, see folio 16 (D14683). Turner registered the existence of the aqueduct in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook as part of his summary of information from Eustace’s A Classical Tour through Italy, 1815 (see Tate D13939; Turner Bequest CLXXII 4a). He also annotated in situ the relevant passage in his copy of Reichard’s Italy, 1818, noting that the surviving structure contained ‘33 arches’ (see Tate, Turner Bequest CCCLXVII, p.332). Further sketches can be found on folios 11 verso, 14 verso, 15 verso, 16 and 16 verso (D14674, D14680, D14682, D14683 and D14684).
An aqueduct appears as a feature in the middle distance of the finished oil painting, The Loretto Necklace exhibited 1829 (Tate, N00509).1 However, Turner has used considerable artistic licence in its depiction, placing it to the north of the city instead of the south, and representing it with a double rather than a single row of arches.
Nicola Moorby
November 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Two views of the Aqueduct south of Loreto, with Recanati in the Distance 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www