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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Viterbo and Ronciglione Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Montefiascone c.1828-9

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Montefiascone’ c.1828-9
Folio 45 Recto:
Montefiascone, with the Basilica of Santa Margherita 1828
D21844
Turner Bequest CCXXXVI 45
Pencil on white wove paper, 125 x 171 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘[?Novo]’ towards centre left
Inscribed in blue ink by John Ruskin ‘45’ bottom left, upside down, and ‘173’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVI 45’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, this sketch depicts Montefiascone in the Viterbo province of Lazio.1 It forms part of a more extended panorama that continues on folio 44 verso (D21843) opposite. Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the present section is dominated by the city’s domed cathedral, the Basilica of Santa Margherita. Turner’s vantage point, according to Courtot, is from the northern arrival by the Orvieto road.2 For a comparable view of the Basilica of Santa Margherita, together with a full list of Turner’s views of Montefiascone in the present sketchbook, see under folio 1 recto (D21765).
Beneath is a rough outline of an unidentified landscape, while a further landscape study, oriented at a right-angle, fills the bottom-right corner. The accompanying inscription ‘Novo’ may refer to the village of San Lorenzo Nuovo on the banks of Lake Bolsena, which Turner encountered at an earlier stage of his journey as he approached Orvieto.

Hannah Kaspar
December 2024

1
Powell 1984, p.438; Roland Courtot, ‘12. Vers Rome: “Carnet de Viterbe et Ronciglione” (TB CCXXXVI)’, Carnets de voyage de Turner, accessed 15 July 2024, https://carnetswt.hypotheses.org/2312.
2
Ibid.

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘Montefiascone, with the Basilica of Santa Margherita 1828’, catalogue entry, December 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/montefiascone-with-the-basilica-of-santa-margherita-r1210612, accessed 06 May 2025.