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 > Ancona to Rome Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Pass of the Somma, between Spoleto and Terni 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Pass of the Somma, between Spoleto and Terni’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
Pass of the Somma, between Spoleto and Terni 1819
D14737
Turner Bequest CLXXVII 43 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 110 x 186 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘Pass of the Somma’ centre of sketch
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
After Spoleto, Turner’s route to Rome followed the Via Flaminia as it climbed towards the Somma pass and wound through the mountains towards Terni. This sketch depicts a view from the road just past Valderena with the exit of a tunnel through the side of the mountain in the bottom left-hand corner. The collection of buildings visible along the ridge in the top left is probably the small village of Torrecola. John Chetwode Eustace described the terrain on this part of the journey in A Classical Tour Through Italy:
The road from Spoleto is bordered by a stream on the left, and by wooded hills on the right. About two miles from the town we began to ascend the Somma. The road is excellent and winds up the steep, without presenting any thing particularly interesting, till you reach the summit, whence you enjoy a delightful and extensive view over Spoleto, and the vale of Clitumnus on one side, and on the other towards Terni, and the plains of the Nar. Monte Somma is supposed to have taken its name from a temple of Jupiter Summanus placed on its summit, is near five thousand feet high, fertile, shaded with the olive, the ilex, and various forest trees, well cultivated, and enlivened with several little towns. The descent is long and rapid, and extends to the stage next to Terni.1
Turner had made notes from this passage in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (see Tate D13940; Turner Bequest CLXXII5).

Nicola Moorby
November 2008

1
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, vol.1, p.326.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Pass of the Somma, between Spoleto and Terni 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 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-pass-of-the-somma-between-spoleto-and-terni-r1138900, accessed 13 January 2025.