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 Part of a Panoramic View of Rome from Santi Cosma e Damiano: the Colosseum and the Baths of Trajan 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Part of a Panoramic View of Rome from Santi Cosma e Damiano: the Colosseum and the Baths of Trajan’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 71 Verso:
Part of a Panoramic View of Rome from Santi Cosma e Damiano: the Colosseum and the Baths of Trajan 1819
D16285
Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 70 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch depicts a view of the remains of the Domus Aurea and Baths of Trajan from a high vantage point north of the Roman Forum. On the right-hand side is the Colosseum and part of the roof of the Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius. A similar view can be found on folios 74 verso and 90 (D16291 and D16321; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 73a and 89). Turner’s location for the prospect is the summit of the Church of San Cosma e Damiano.1 Further sketches completing the circle of vision from this viewpoint can be found on folios 70 verso–71 and 72 verso–4 (D16283–D16284 and D16287–D16290; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 69a–70 and 71a–4). For a general discussion for the vogue for urban panoramic views see folio 75 verso (D16293; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 74a).

Nicola Moorby
January 2009

1
See Thomas Ashby, ‘Turner in Rome’, Burlington Magazine, vol.24, no.130, January 1914, p.218.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Part of a Panoramic View of Rome from Santi Cosma e Damiano: the Colosseum and the Baths of Trajan 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-part-of-a-panoramic-view-of-rome-from-santi-cosma-e-damiano-r1139797, accessed 19 April 2024.