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 Five Sketches of the Aqueduct of Nero, Rome 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Five Sketches of the Aqueduct of Nero, Rome’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Recto:
Five Sketches of the Aqueduct of Nero, Rome 1819
D15239
Turner Bequest CLXXX 76
Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 101 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Effect of Sirocco’ top right and ‘A. of Nero’ bottom left of top sketch
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘76’ top left, inverted
Stamped in black ‘CLXXX 76’ top left, inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription by underneath the uppermost sketch identifies the subject of these five landscape views as the Aqueduct of Nero (Arcus Neroniani), a branch of the ancient Aqua Claudia which ran from the Porta Maggiore to the Palatine Hill in Rome. Ruined stretches of the aqueduct can still be seen today near San Giovanni in Laterano. The rough nature of Turner’s draughtsmanship, and the inclusion of five successive studies on one page suggests that they were executed from a moving carriage.
In the top right-hand corner of the page, Turner has also noted ‘Effect of Sirocco’, which refers to the climatic and atmospheric conditions he was witnessing. The sirocco is a warm, humid wind which blows across the Mediterranean from North Africa often causing autumnal wet and thundery conditions in Italy.

Nicola Moorby
December 2009

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Five Sketches of the Aqueduct of Nero, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-five-sketches-of-the-aqueduct-of-nero-rome-r1139651, accessed 25 April 2024.