Joseph Mallord William Turner Naples from above Virgil's Tomb 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 55 Recto:
Naples from above Virgil’s Tomb 1819
D16143
Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 55
Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 55
Pencil on white wove paper, 255 x 403 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Vines’ lower left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVII 55’ bottom right
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Vines’ lower left-hand edge
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXVII 55’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1869
Third Loan Collection selected from the Turner Bequest, various venues and dates, 1869–1931 (no catalogue but numbered 48 [16], as ‘Naples’).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.557, as ‘Naples. Third Loan Collection, No.48 (16)’.
1991
Ian Warrell, ‘R.N. Wornum and the First Three Loan Collections: A History of the Early Display of the Turner Bequest Outside London’, Turner Studies, vol.11, no.1, Summer 1991, p.47, no.48 (16).
One of the most famous panoramic views of the Bay of Naples is that from the Posillipo Hill to the west. Like many English tourists, Turner made the ascent of the hill to the so-called Tomb of Virgil, an ancient Roman burial monument positioned above the opening of the Grotto of Posillipo (now known as the Crypta Neapolitana in present-day Parco Vergiliano). This vista depicts the view looking east from a point near Virgil’s tomb.1 On the right-hand side of the composition is the semi-circular sweep of the Chiaia waterfront towards the headland of Castel dell’Ovo with Vesuvius rising beyond. Above the city to the left are the Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, whilst the building along the ridge of the Vomero Hill on the far left-hand side is the seventeenth-century Villa Belvedere.
Related compositions can be found on another page within this sketchbook (Tate D16143; Turner Bequest CLXXXVII 55), as well as in the Gandolfo to Naples sketchbook (Tate D15664–15666; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 54–55) and the Pompeii, Amalfi, Sorrento, Herculaneum sketchbook (Tate D15904; Turner Bequest CLXXXV 90). Compare also a drawing by James Hakewill (1778–1843), Naples and Mount Vesuvius from above Virgil’s Tomb 1816 (British School at Rome Library), reproduced in Hakewill’s Picturesque Tour of Italy (published 1820), a book to which Turner also contributed illustrations.2
Compare a late nineteenth-century photograph by Giacomo Brogi (1822–1881), Panorama preso dalla Tomba di Virgilio (Museo San Martino, Naples), reproduced at http://museosanmartino.campaniabeniculturali.it/itinerari-tematici/galleria-di-immagini/OA1000240?page=363 .
Technical notes:
The Naples, Rome C. Studies sketchbook was partially rebound in 1935. This leaf was perhaps originally folio 16 (see the concordance in the introduction).
Verso:
Blank, save for inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘[?M]’ bottom right, ascending right-hand edge
Nicola Moorby
November 2010
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Naples from above Virgil’s Tomb 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www