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

The right-hand third of the page is taken up with a continuation of the buildings and arcade formerly running along the north side of the square west of Milan Cathedral, seen in the full-page drawing on folio 2 recto opposite (D14328), under which other views of the city are noted. Immediately to its left is a profile of an architectural moulding, perhaps associated with the elaborate arches.

At the top centre are notes concerning local theatres; the format of the two passages suggests they were copied from signs or posters in the vicinity. Some of the words are clearer than others, but ‘Musica’ is mentioned on both bills, as well as ‘Ballo’ (dance) on the first, while the second refers to the Teatro Carcano, a theatre and opera house which remains open in Milan today. On the evidence of these notes and in the context of Turner’s wider interest in music and the theatre, Cecilia Powell has observed: ‘It is possible that Turner, like many other English visitors to the continent at this time, attended musical events in Italy’.1