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 > Vatican Fragments Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including Architectural Features and an Ash Urn 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including Architectural Features and an Ash Urn’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including Architectural Features and an Ash Urn 1819
D15143
Turner Bequest CLXXX 20
Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 101 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘20’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXX 20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
During his 1819 stay in Rome, one of Turner’s most extensive sketching campaigns was the large number of pencil studies made from the sculpture collections of the Vatican Museums (for a general discussion, see the introduction to the sketchbook). This page contains sketches of several objects, some or all of which were probably found in the Museo Chiaramonti. The studies are numbered from top left to bottom right:
a.
The sketch at the top depicts part of an unidentified architectural fragment decorated with figures and an Ionic capital. Turner has annotated the drawing ‘978’ which presumably relates to an exhibit number displayed on the individual work. However, it does not appear to correspond to any known lists published within contemporary guide books or catalogues of the Vatican collections.
b.
The subject of this sketch is currently unidentified although it appears to depict an ash urn.
c.
A sketch of a Corinthian capital, the source of which is currently unidentified.
d.
The sketch in the bottom left-hand corner appears to depict an acroterion, an architectural ornament designed to be placed at the apex of a pediment. The source is currently unidentified, however, the object also features within a sheet of antiquities drawn by James Hakewill (1778–1843) in 1817 (British School at Rome Library).1
e.
An unidentified architectural fragment, possibly a capital, decorated with a stylised palmette motif.
f.
The sketch in the bottom right-hand corner of the page depicts an ash urn in the Museo Chiaramonti.2 Turner has transcribed the accompanying Greek inscription as ‘T ¿ F | ¿G¿T¿¿¿. ¿G¿T¿¿ | ¿¿ ¿T¿S. ¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿ | ¿¿¿¿¿¿’ [Be good in your character and in your art].3

Nicola Moorby
November 2009

1
See Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A Catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.5M.19, reproduced p.313.
2
See Walther Amelung, Die Sculpturen des Vaticanischen Museums, Berlin 1903–8, vol.I, ‘3. Museo Chiaramonti I Seite 309–560’, no.306, p.516, reproduced pl.54, third from right on shelf. Not, as Cecilia Powell has suggested, Amelung, vol.I, ‘2. Galleria Lapidaria Seite 161–308’, no.94, not illustrated.
3
Transcribed by Sofia Karamani, Ioannis Iordanidis and Steve Hare.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including Architectural Features and an Ash Urn 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2009, 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-studies-of-sculptural-fragments-from-the-vatican-museums-r1139555, accessed 26 April 2024.