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

As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, this panoramic view depicts the town of Caprarola in Viterbo.1 Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, it shows the steep slopes densely clustered with buildings. They lead towards the Palazzo Farnese, a Renaissance palace overlooking the town, outlined here at the top of the page. The street shown here is likely the present-day Via Filippo Nicolai, formerly known as the Via Dritta, designed in the sixteenth century by the architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, who also designed the palace.2 The arch at the centre is presumably one of the two bridges designed by Vignola. The topography becomes more loosely defined towards foreground. Turner’s annotation ‘Santa Trinita’ likely refers to the nearby Church of San Marco, also known as the Santissima Trinità, which lies at the foot of the Via Dritta.

Turner’s vantage point for this view was near the Church of San Marco, facing north-west towards the Palazzo Farnese.3 A section of the palace’s façade is detailed separately in the top-right corner, to the left of which is distant Monte Soratte on the horizon. Caprarola appears in a dozen works in the present sketchbook; see under folio 4 verso (D21772) for an extended commentary and a list of relevant works.