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 > Rome and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, Florence, from Forte Belvedere 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, Florence, from Forte Belvedere’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 52 Verso:
Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, Florence, from Forte Belvedere 1819
D16574
Turner Bequest CXCI 52 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Tuscan Doric Ar’ bottom centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint for this view of the Boboli Gardens in Florence appears to have been the heights of Forte Belvedere in the south-east corner of the grounds. The vista looks north-west towards the Palazzo Pitti with the tall pointed bell-tower of Santo Spirito rising beyond. Visible in the distance is the River Arno, and on the far left-hand side, the hill of Bellosguardo. For further studies of the Boboli Gardens see folio 50 verso (D16570). A similar composition, Florence – View from the Fortress looking over the Gardens of the Palazzo Pitti 1816 (Library of the British School at Rome), was drawn by James Hakewill (1778–1843), Turner’s collaborator on Hakewill’s Picturesque Tour of Italy.1
The most detailed aspect of Turner’s sketch is the façade of the Palazzo Pitti, a Renaissance palace with a courtyard (cortile) façade characterised by rusticated columns opening onto the garden. Directly in front of the building is the Fontana del Carciofo (Fountain of the Artichoke), designed by Francesco Susini (circa 1585–1653). Formerly owned by the powerful Medici family, at the time of Turner’s visit the palace was the residence of the Austrian House of Lorraine. Today it houses a complex of museums and galleries.

Nicola Moorby
December 2010

1
Tony Cubberley and Luke Herrmann, Twilight of the Grand Tour: A Catalogue of the drawings by James Hakewill in the British School at Rome Library, Rome 1992, no.2.38, p.155 reproduced.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, Florence, from Forte Belvedere 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-palazzo-pitti-and-the-boboli-gardens-florence-from-forte-r1138467, accessed 12 January 2025.