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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Details of the Decorations of Raphael's Loggia in the Vatican: Plan of the Frescoes of 'Raphael's Bible' from the Second Vault of the Ceiling 1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 15 Verso:
Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: Plan of the Frescoes of ‘Raphael’s Bible’ from the Second Vault of the Ceiling 1819
D14958
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 15 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil within the diagram [see main catalogue entry]
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The diagrammatic sketch on this page represents a plan of the frescoes for ‘Raphael’s Bible’ in the second ceiling vault of the Loggia of Raphael in the Vatican Palace. On the left-hand side Turner has made a rough outline copy of The Labours of Adam and Eve by ?Tommaso Vincidor (1493–1536),1 whilst he has used written notes to mark the position of the ‘Creation of Eve’ by Vincidor,2 and ‘The [?Forbidden] Tree’ (i.e. The Fall or Original Sin) by Vincidor and Pellegrino da Modena (1460–1523).3 A more detailed study of the same vault can be seen on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 16 (D14959). The Creation of Eve is clearly visible in Turner’s painted recreation of the loggia within the right-hand side of the composition of Rome from the Vatican.

Nicola Moorby
January 2010

1
Reproduced in Nicole Dacos, Le Logge di Rafaello: Maestro e bottega di fronte all’antico, Rome 1977, no.II.4, reproduced Tav.XV and Nicole Dacos, The Loggia of Raphael: A Vatican Art Treasure, New York and London 2008, pl.106, p.145.
2
Dacos 1977, no.II.1, reproduced Tav.XII.
3
Ibid., no.II.2, reproduced Tav.XIII.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: Plan of the Frescoes of ‘Raphael’s Bible’ from the Second Vault of the Ceiling 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2010, 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-details-of-the-decorations-of-raphaels-loggia-in-the-vatican-r1137590, accessed 17 May 2024.