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 > St Peter's Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner St Peter's, Rome, from the West 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘St Peter's, Rome, from the West’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Verso:
St Peter’s, Rome, from the West 1819
D16170
Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 7 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint for this distant view of St Peter’s may have been the Pineta Sacchetti, a wood of pine trees which lies to the west of the Vatican, at the foot of Monte Mario. The arched structure in the left-hand foreground has not been identified. In front of Michelangelo’s famous dome can be seen part of the ancient medieval walls at the western tip of the Vatican complex. On the left end is a machicolated tower, today occupied by Vatican Radio, whilst on the right is a second tower, the Torre San Giovanni (Tower of St John). A similar view can be found on folios 6 verso–7 (D16168–D16169).

Nicola Moorby
September 2008

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘St Peter’s, Rome, from the West 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-st-peters-rome-from-the-west-r1139679, accessed 25 April 2024.