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 Rialto Bridge, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Rialto Bridge, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 13 Recto:
The Rialto Bridge, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi 1819
D14512
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 13
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Paschalle cionesia venetiar | Dvce anno Christi MDXCI | VRBIS conditae MCIXX | CVRANTIBVS | Aloy[...] GEOR Proc M Antonio Barbaro | Eq. Et Proc Jcabo Foscaren[?que]’ Eq et Proc’ centre left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘13’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 13’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing continues across folio 13 recto opposite (D14512). The viewpoint is the quay at the east side of the base of the bridge on the south bank of the Grand Canal, with the steps at right-angles to the main bridge shown on the other page. Here attention turns north-west to take in the rest of the single-arched bridge and the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi on the bend of the canal, shown receding on the right. To the left of the Camerlenghi is the campanile of San Giovanni Elemosinario, with its open belfry arch.
Towards the lower left is a dutiful and reasonably accurate transcription of one of four matching Latin inscriptions which flank the arch on each spandrel, marking the completion of the bridge in its enduring stone form in 1591 (MDXCI in Roman numerals).1
The Camerlenghi is shown in somewhat selective detail; compare the more detailed study from a similar angle in the contemporary Milan to Venice book (Tate D14396; CLXXV 43a), which also includes numerous views of the bridge. For other aspects of Venice on adjacent pages here, see this sketchbook’s Introduction.
1
See ‘Rialto’s Bridge’, VeniceWiki, accessed 20 February 2017, https://venicewiki.org/wiki/Rialto's_Bridge.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Rialto Bridge, Venice, with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi 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-rialto-bridge-venice-with-the-palazzo-dei-camerlenghi-r1186247, accessed 18 May 2024.