Joseph Mallord William Turner Spoleto, from near the Present-Day Ponte Garibaldi 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 40 Verso:
Spoleto, from near the Present-Day Ponte Garibaldi 1819
D14731
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 40 a
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 40 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Blue | Edging and Shoulder Straps | Black cap and large ornate | Sleeves’ bottom left
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Blue | Edging and Shoulder Straps | Black cap and large ornate | Sleeves’ bottom left
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.522, as ‘Do. [Spoleto.]’.
1968
Giovanni Carandente, ‘Un Viaggio di Turner in Umbria’, Spoletium: Rivista di arte, storia e cultura, no.13, April 1968, p.21 note 22, reproduced p.17 fig.8, as ‘Spoleto, Il Duomo e la Rocca’.
1972
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1972, p.114.
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Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.101, 469 notes 139 and 143, 409, as ‘Spoleto, from near Ponte Garibaldi’.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.34.
2008
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner e l’Italia, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 2008, pp.44, 90 note 29.
2009
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner & Italy, exhibition catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2009, pp.42, 150–1 note 29.
The picturesque Umbrian town of Spoleto lies thirteen miles from Foligno, approximately half-way on the nineteenth-century route between Ancona and Rome. This sketch, continued on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 41 (D14731), represents a panoramic view of the skyline from the natural point of entry into the north of the town; the intersection of the Via Flaminia and the River Tessino, near present-day Ponte Garibaldi. The composition virtually repeats the view on folios 38a–39 (D14727–28) and folio 42 (D14734), but in this instance the detail of the buildings is rather more fully and carefully delineated. On the left is the medieval church and monastery of San Ponziano whilst the three arches in the foreground belong to the Roman remains of the Ponte Sanguinario. To the right is the Cathedral, the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, whilst dominating the scene on the slopes above is the fourteenth-century castle, the Rocca Albornoziana.
In the bottom left-hand corner, Turner has roughly drawn a female figure, annotating the sketch with notes relating to her costume (see the inscription above). The colourful dress of the native contadine, or Italian peasant women, frequently caught his eye. A whole sheet of studies can be found on folio 44 verso (D14739).
Nicola Moorby
November 2008
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Spoleto, from near the Present-Day Ponte Garibaldi 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