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 > Ancona to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bridge of Augustus and the Medieval Bridge, Narni 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bridge of Augustus and the Medieval Bridge, Narni’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 66 Verso:
Bridge of Augustus and the Medieval Bridge, Narni 1819
D14782
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 66 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Sand’ bottom centre left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner devoted a considerable number of sketches to the Bridge of Augustus (Ponte d’Augusto) at Narni, one of the most famous landmarks in Umbria, see folio 61 verso (D14772). This view, drawn from the eastern bank of the River Nera, depicts the single surviving arch and the remaining piers of the Roman bridge in the foreground, with the adjacent medieval bridge at Narni beyond. The latter was destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War. The drawing spills over slightly onto the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 67 (D14783).

Nicola Moorby
November 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Bridge of Augustus and the Medieval Bridge, Narni 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.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-bridge-of-augustus-and-the-medieval-bridge-narni-r1138945, accessed 25 April 2024.