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 > Venice to Ancona Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with Santa Maria della Pietà, the Ponte del Sepolcro and the Casa Navagero, and the Campanile of San Marco and Santa Maria della Salute Beyond 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with Santa Maria della Pietà, the Ponte del Sepolcro and the Casa Navagero, and the Campanile of San Marco and Santa Maria della Salute Beyond’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
The Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with Santa Maria della Pietà, the Ponte del Sepolcro and the Casa Navagero, and the Campanile of San Marco and Santa Maria della Salute Beyond 1819
D14500
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 7
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Parocchia | di San | Zaccaria’ and ‘Riva | di [?Schiavoni]’ towards top right, and ‘[?along] to the Canal | to the [?B...]’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 7’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The boats on the left are continued briefly on folio 6 verso opposite (D14499). The Turner scholar C.F. Bell annotated Finberg’s 1909 Inventory entry (‘“Parochia of S. Zaccaria,” with Santa Maria della Pietà and Campanile of S. Marco’): ‘Salute l. Pietà right’.1
Looking across the entrance to the Rio della Pietà in the foreground, the view is west-south-west to the domes of Santa Maria della Salute on the left, with the campanile of St Mark’s lightly indicated to the right of centre. On the right, the south front of the church of Santa Maria della Pietà was then in an unfinished state, lacking the upper sections of its classical half-columns. The format of the inscriptions at the top right suggests they were transcribed from local street signs.
The view is continued into the foreground directly to the right on folio 8 recto (D14502), and Turner would have had to temporarily curl the outer edge of this page round to the gutter there to continue. Turner having curled the outer edge here to the gutter there.
For other drawings made in the vicinity, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.
1
Undated MS note by C.F. Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.516.
Technical notes:
The glue used to repair a 35 mm tear to the bottom edge has darkened considerably. There is a prominent crease running across from the top of the tear.

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, with Santa Maria della Pietà, the Ponte del Sepolcro and the Casa Navagero, and the Campanile of San Marco and Santa Maria della Salute Beyond 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-riva-degli-schiavoni-venice-with-santa-maria-della-pieta-r1186235, accessed 17 May 2024.