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 > Milan to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan; ?a Copy of a Painting or Sculpture, Possibly of St Ambrose Baptising St Augustine of Hippo; Studies of a Cow or Bull and a Trolley 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan; ?a Copy of a Painting or Sculpture, Possibly of St Ambrose Baptising St Augustine of Hippo; Studies of a Cow or Bull and a Trolley’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 91 Recto:
The Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, Milan; ?a Copy of a Painting or Sculpture, Possibly of St Ambrose Baptising St Augustine of Hippo; Studies of a Cow or Bull and a Trolley 1819
D14487
Turner Bequest CLXXV 90
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 185 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘St Agustine’, ‘St Ambrosio’, ‘Grey’, ‘Purple’ and ‘[...]’ towards top left, around figures, and ‘St Ambro[...]’ bottom centre, below church
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘90’ bottom left, upside down and ‘300’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CLXXV 90’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The main drawing, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation shows the view north-east from the present Via Lanzone over the cloisters and the two campanile flanking the west end of Milan’s Romanesque Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, to the dome at the far end of the church, which has since lost its cupola. Conversely, the left-hand bell tower now stands taller, with open arches on an upper storey.
Separated by a vertical pencil line, on the left are smaller studies. The upper shows two figures, one standing with an arm or arms raised above another at a lower level. Turner’s notes indicate that they are ‘St Agustine’ and ‘St Ambrosio’ (that is Ambrose, or the Ambrogio of the church’s Italian dedication). Tradition has it that Ambrose, then Bishop of Milan, baptised Augustine of Hippo in 387,1 so this may be a swift record of an as yet undetermined painting, mosaic or polychrome sculpture of the event. At the bottom left, drawn with the page turned vertically, are studies of a cow or bull and what appears to be a trolley or small cart. It is unclear how these relate to the other drawings.
For other drawings of Milan in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 2 recto (D14328).

Matthew Imms
March 2017

1
See ‘His baptism – 01’, Augnet, accessed 15 February 2017, http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=100.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, Milan; ?a Copy of a Painting or Sculpture, Possibly of St Ambrose Baptising St Augustine of Hippo; Studies of a Cow or Bull and a Trolley 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-basilica-of-santambrogio-milan-a-copy-of-a-painting-or-r1186600, accessed 19 September 2024.