Joseph Mallord William Turner Sketches of the Bay of Baiae, with the Castle and the So-Called Temple of Venus 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 84 Verso:
Sketches of the Bay of Baiae, with the Castle and the So-Called Temple of Venus 1819
D15722
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 82 a
Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 82 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 122 x 197 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.545, as ‘Bay of Baiæ (See the oil painting exhibited R.A. 1823, and now in National Gallery, No.505)’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, pp.91 under no.231, 92 under no.237.
1982
Evelyn Joll and Martin Butlin, L’opera completa di Turner 1793–1829, Classici dell’arte, Milan 1982, p.108 under no.238.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.139 under no.230.
1984
Cecilia Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.180 note 42, 188 note 84, 247–8, 355–6 note 32, reproduced pl.165, as ‘The bay of Baiae, with the Temple of Venus and the castle’.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.79 note 35, 83 note 65, 120 note 47, 170 note 14, reproduced p.121, pl.129, as ‘The Bay of Baiae, with the Temple of Venus and the castle’.
During his 1819 visit to southern Italy, Turner made several sketches of the Bay of Baiae, an ancient Roman bathing resort situated on the coast approximately ten miles west of Naples. These formed the basis for a later oil painting, one of three Italian subjects completed by the artist in the months and years following his return to London in 1820. The painting, The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl exhibited 1823 (Tate, N00505),1 features a similar view to that depicted here, looking south-east across the bay towards the distant Posillipo coast and the island of Nisida, with the Castello di Baia (Castle of Baiae) on the promontory to the right. Turner’s viewpoint for this drawing is very close to the so-called Temple of Venus, the octagonal ruin in the left-hand foreground, which is one of a number of thermal bath-houses found near the shoreline. There is a separate smaller study of the building in the bottom right-hand corner. The composition continues on the opposite sheet of the double-page spread, see folio 85 (D15723; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 83).
For further on-the-spot views of Baiae see folios 79 verso–81, 82, 85 verso–89 verso, 92 (D15712–D15715, D15717, D15724–D15732 and D15737; Turner Bequest CLXXXIV 77a–79, 80, 83a–87a and 90). An early study of the Temple of Venus after another artist can be found in Dr Monro’s Album of Italian Views (Tate D36422; Turner Bequest CCCLXXIII 9). There is also a later oil study which probably also features the ruin, see Seacoast with Ruin, probably the Bay of Baiae circa 1828 (Tate, N00530).2
Nicola Moorby
June 2010
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Sketches of the Bay of Baiae, with the Castle and the So-Called Temple of Venus 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2010, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www