J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

At the top is a schematic view north from the Canale della Giudecca with the outlines of the main dome of Santa Maria della Salute, the Seminario Patriarcale and the Dogana, with the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s) to the right, beyond the Dogana’s porch. The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore; also Campanile and Doge’s Palace’): ‘Panoramas from a gondola’.1 Bell marked Finberg’s similar text in In Venice with Turner (1930): ‘Panorama from a gondola’.2

The relatively detailed prospect below is to the north and east from the Bacino across the start of the Giudecca canal, from a viewpoint similar to that used for the drawing of the Salute and Giudecca churches in the opposite direction on folios 15 verso–16 recto (D14516–D14517). To the left here the campanile is repeated, with the domes of the Basilica above the south-western corner of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), and the Riva degli Schiavoni waterfront with its towers and domes beyond. The panorama continues half way across folio 17 recto opposite (D14519), with the island church of San Giorgio Maggiore across the Bacino.

Compare the more detailed panorama from the Isola della Giudecca on folios 17 verso–18 recto (D14520–D14521). For other drawings made in the vicinity, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.