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 > Tivoli to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Details of the Decorations of Raphael's Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of 'Raphael's Bible' from the Third Vault of the Ceiling 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Details of the Decorations of Raphael's Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of 'Raphael's Bible' from the Third Vault of the Ceiling’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of ‘Raphael’s Bible’ from the Third Vault of the Ceiling 1819
D14961
Turner Bequest CLXXIX 18
Pencil on white wove paper, 112 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil with various notes on the loggia decorations [see main catalogue entry]
Inscribed by ?John Ruskin in blue ink ‘18’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXIX 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches on this page represent the decorative fresco scheme in the third ceiling vault of the Loggia of Raphael in the Vatican. This is comprised of four scenes from ‘Raphael’s Bible’ as well as other elements, including, anti-clockwise from the bottom:
a
The Building of the Ark by Giulio Romano (circa 1499–1546) and Giovanfrancesco Penni (1488/96–1528).1 Turner has inscribed the sketch ‘Pier’ and ‘B’, and ‘Sleeve L B | Yellow with Lake S’, and has additionally noted above the scene ‘fruit of Sculptor’.
b
The Flood (or The Deluge) by Bartolomeo di David (1482–circa 1545),2 inscribed ‘Yellow’, ‘V Light’ and ‘V Dark’, ‘Grey’ and ‘Green’.
c
Leaving the Ark by Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564).3 Variously inscribed ‘[?Boch...]’, ‘White with Pink Shads’, ‘x Green’, ‘Gr’, ‘L’, ‘Br | V’, and ‘Gr | Green’.
d
The Sacrifice of Noah by Giulio Romano and Bartolomeo di David.4 Inscribed to the left of the scene ‘9 | White | Columns | [?View] and | Spotted | V Brown and Red | Shadows’, and with various colour notes within the scene ‘V Light’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘G’, ‘R’, ‘VL’, ‘La’ and ‘Light Blue in the | Lights’.
e
The architectural details in the bottom left-hand corner represent the trompe l’oeil fresco of columns, repeated in each of the four corners. Turner has labelled this part ‘V3’, to remind him that it is the third vault of the loggia.
f
The panel in the centre of the vault depicts a winged victory or angel carrying a yoke. Turner has inscribed the sketch with colour notes including ‘G’ and ‘Gold’ in the centre and ‘Or’ within the ornamental border. To the right and top of the figure he has recorded the position of the respective Biblical frescoes ‘Deluge’ and ‘Going into the Ark’.
The Sacrifice of Noah and the trompe l’oeil architectural details in the corner spandrels are clearly visible in Turner’s painted recreation of the loggia within the right-hand side of the composition of Rome from the Vatican. Raffaelle Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia exhibited 1820 (Tate, N00503).5 Turner has also depicted the Building of the Ark as a separate canvas which appears in the foreground of the picture, held by the figure of Raphael, who looks upwards in the direction of its actual position in the ceiling.6 Mordechai Omer has argued that the story of Noah represented a particular iconographical significance for Turner, with the building of the ark symbolising the contemplative and physical activities of making a work of art.7 Finley meanwhile has attributed Turner’s use of the Building of the Ark to the artist’s belief in the redemptive power of art, off-setting the carnal and material aspects of Raphael’s life.8
As Robert McVaugh has pointed out, Omer’s statement that the third vault was the one which interested Turner most and the only one where he studied every picture in the cycle misrepresents the evidence of the sketchbook.9 In fact a detailed survey also exists of the second vault, see folios 15 verso and 16 (D14958–D14959), as well as an incomplete record of the first, fourth and fifth vaults, see folios 14 and 20 (D14956 and D14964). Further studies related to the evolution of Rome from the Vatican can be found on folios 13 verso, 18 verso–21 verso and 25–26 (D14955, D14962–D14966 and D14970–D14972), as well as an elaborate compositional drawing in pen and ink in the Rome C. Studies sketchbook (Tate D16368; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 41). For a full description of the loggia and Turner’s sketches see folio 14 (D14956).

Nicola Moorby
January 2010

1
Nicole Dacos, Le Logge di Rafaello: Maestro e bottega di fronte all’antico, Rome 1977, no.III.1, reproduced, Tav.XV and Nicole Dacos, The Loggia of Raphael: A Vatican Art Treasure, New York and London 2008, pl.107, p.147.
2
Dacos 1977, no.III.2, reproduced Tav.XVI and Dacos 2008, pl.108, p.148.
3
Dacos 1977, no.III.3, reproduced Tav.XVII and Dacos 2008, pl.109, p.149.
4
Dacos 1977, no.III.4, reproduced Tav.XVIII and Dacos 2008, pl.110, pl.150.
5
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, no.228.
6
See Omer 1975, detail reproduced fig.3, p.[695].
7
Ibid., p.697.
8
Gerald Finley, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s “Rome from the Vatican”: A Palimpsest of History’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol.49, 1986, pp.68–9.
9
Omer 1975, p.694; McVaugh 1987, p.327 note 21.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Details of the Decorations of Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican: The Frescoes of ‘Raphael’s Bible’ from the Third Vault of the Ceiling 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-details-of-the-decorations-of-raphaels-loggia-in-the-vatican-r1137593, accessed 25 April 2025.