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 > Route to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto and Giorgione in the Church of San Rocco, Venice 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto and Giorgione in the Church of San Rocco, Venice’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 30 Verso:
Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto and Giorgione in the Church of San Rocco, Venice 1819
D13916
Turner Bequest CLXXI 30 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 114 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Trevizzano’ upper left-hand edge
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Part of Turner’s sojourn in Venice included a detailed examination of the paintings of Tintoretto (1518–94), particularly those found in the Scuola Grande and Chiese di San Rocco. Ian Warrell has identified the subjects on this page as follows, from top left to bottom right:
a.
The column details framing the composition of the sketch in the top left-hand corner suggest that the subject is either Jesus Makes a Lame Man Walk, 1559.1 or St Roch Struck by the Plague (or St Roch in the Desert), 1580 by Tintoretto.2 The drawing is annotated ‘Light’.
b.
Christ Bearing the Cross, 1506, by Giorgione (circa 1477/8–1510). Inscribed ‘Shadow’. Formerly situated in the left apsidal altar of the church, the painting is currently found on an easel in the Upper Hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.3
c.
The study at the bottom represents Tintoretto’s St Roch Healing the Plague Victims, 1549, situated in the apse of the church.4
The inscription near the top left-hand corner appears to refer to the eighteenth-century artist, Francesco Trevisani (1656–1746), who painted The Miracle of St Anthony 1733–4, also situated in the church.
Further sketches relating to the Scuola Grande and Chiesa di San Rocco can be seen on folios 23 verso, 24 verso, 25 verso–27 and 29 verso–30 (D13902, D13904, D13906–D13909 and D13914–D13915).

Nicola Moorby
March 2010

1
See http://www.scuolagrandesanrocco.it/inglese/popup.asp?id=5.
2
See http://www.scuolagrandesanrocco.it/inglese/popup.asp?id=8.
3
See http://www.scuolagrandesanrocco.it/inglese/popup.asp?id=99.
4
See http://www.scuolagrandesanrocco.it/inglese/popup.asp?id=4.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Copies of Pictures by Tintoretto and Giorgione in the Church of San Rocco, Venice 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-copies-of-pictures-by-tintoretto-and-giorgione-in-the-church-r1138734, accessed 17 May 2026.