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 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 10 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13950
Turner Bequest CLXXII 10 a
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
Villa’s | Villa Spada or Brunati Palatine hill | Mt Celius Villa Matthei Orti Farnesi | Villa Negroni Esquiline & Viminal Hill | the ramparts raised by Tarquinus Priscus. | agger Tarquinius passes tho the garden | Villa Aldobrandini Nozze an ancient painting | of the nuptial ceremony. | Villa Ludovizzi Pincian Hill Aurora by | Guercino in the Casino | Villa Medici. Stado Pinciana between Orti Barberini South of St Peters | Corsini Palace Bosco Parrhasio Janiculum | Villa Pamfili or Belrespiro ^ 1 mile^ by Porta Pan. | – crazio Villa Millini Pons Milvius Tower | and Rome – Villa Madama designed | by Raffaello and painted by Julio Romano | Villa Albani by Porta Salara | Villa Borghese near Porta Pinciana | from the Capitol cross the Forum. Left the arch | of the Rostra temple of Romulus spring of | Juturna – right Cloaca Maxima work of | Tarquin Priscus arch of Janus cross the | Forum Boarium Palatine on one hand | Circus Maximus on the other Clivus Scauri | Mt Celius Thermae of Antoninus Mt Aventine | & Porta Capena via Appia Basilica of | Sebastian to the Baths or Circus of Caracalla
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 Many of the sights listed here form subjects in Turner’s various Roman sketchboks, such as the Villa Madama on the slopes of Monte Mario or the antique ruins in the Forum Boarium.
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.389–90.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.193–212.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, 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-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138771, accessed 22 November 2024.