Joseph Mallord William Turner Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including a Torso of a Satyr and the Grave Altar of Q. Gaius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Verso:
Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including a Torso of a Satyr and the Grave Altar of Q. Gaius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria 1819
D15142
Turner Bequest CLXXX 19 a
Turner Bequest CLXXX 19 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 161 x 101 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
2008
Turner e l’Italia/Turner and Italy, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, November 2008–February 2009, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, March–June 2009 (42, reproduced in colour).
2009
Turner és Itália, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest, July–October 2009 (no number, reproduced).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.532, as ‘Tomb, &c.’.
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Powell, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1984, pp.136 note 37, 143, 413, 476 note 8, as ‘(a) Torso (A, I, pl.27, 115) (b) Grave altar (rest of page) Grave altar of Q. Gavius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria (A, I, pl.27, 115a)’.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, pp.51 note 6, 55 note 23.
2008
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner e l’Italia, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 2008, no.42, pp.48, 91 note 54 [incorrectly as 19], [179], 183, [211], reproduced in colour as ‘Roma. Schizzi di sculture ai Musei Vaticani, tra cui la tomba di Gaio Musico e Volumnia Ianuaria; frammenti architettonici e un’urna cineraria’.
2009
James Hamilton, Nicola Moorby, Christopher Baker and others, Turner & Italy, exhibition catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2009, pp.47–8, 151 note 54 [incorrectly as 19], reproduced in colour pl.50 p.46, as ‘A Torso: Grave Altar of Q. Gaius Musiucs and Volumnia Ianuaria’.
2009
Christopher Baker and James Hamilton, Turner és Itália, exhibition catalogue, Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, Budapest 2009, p.53, reproduced p.45, fig.45.
During his 1819 stay in Rome, one of Turner’s most extensive sketching campaigns was the large number of pencil studies made from the sculpture collections of the Vatican Museums (for a general discussion, see the introduction to the sketchbook). This page contains sketches of three objects, some or all of which were probably found in the Museo Chiaramonti. The studies are numbered from top left to bottom right:
a.
Cecilia Powell has identified the sketch in the top left-hand corner as a torso of a satyr,1 found in the Galleria Lapidaria (Lapidary Gallery).2
b.
The sketch in the top right-hand corner is currently unidentified but appears to depict a grave altar or ash urn.
c.
Powell has identified the remaining sketch as the grave altar of Q. Gavius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria.3 Formerly found in the Galleria Lapidaria,4 today the altar can be seen in the South Portico of the Cortile Ottagono (also known as the Cortile Ottagonale, formerly the Cortile del Belvedere) in the Museo Pio-Clementino.5 Turner has depicted the altar from an oblique three-quarter angle which shows the front as well as the relief panel on the right-hand side. He has also transcribed the accompanying Latin inscription which reads ‘DIS.MANIBVS’ [To the spirits of the departed] and ‘DI | Q.GAVI.MVSICI.VOLVMNIA | SANVARIA.CONIVCI.CARISSIMO | BENFDESEMERITO.FECIT.ET.SIBI.ET | LIBERTIS. LIBERTABVSQ. POSTERISQ: FORUM’.
Cecilia Powell has identified the sketch in the top left-hand corner as a torso of a satyr,1 found in the Galleria Lapidaria (Lapidary Gallery).2
b.
The sketch in the top right-hand corner is currently unidentified but appears to depict a grave altar or ash urn.
c.
Powell has identified the remaining sketch as the grave altar of Q. Gavius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria.3 Formerly found in the Galleria Lapidaria,4 today the altar can be seen in the South Portico of the Cortile Ottagono (also known as the Cortile Ottagonale, formerly the Cortile del Belvedere) in the Museo Pio-Clementino.5 Turner has depicted the altar from an oblique three-quarter angle which shows the front as well as the relief panel on the right-hand side. He has also transcribed the accompanying Latin inscription which reads ‘DIS.MANIBVS’ [To the spirits of the departed] and ‘DI | Q.GAVI.MVSICI.VOLVMNIA | SANVARIA.CONIVCI.CARISSIMO | BENFDESEMERITO.FECIT.ET.SIBI.ET | LIBERTIS. LIBERTABVSQ. POSTERISQ: FORUM’.
Nicola Moorby
November 2009
See Walther Amelung, Die Sculpturen des Vaticanischen Museums, Berlin 1903–8, vol.I, ‘2. Galleria Lapidaria Seite 161–308’, no.115, p.240, reproduced pl.27.
See Amelung 1903–8, vol.I, ‘2. Galleria Lapidaria Seite 161–308’, no.115a, pp.249–50, reproduced pl.27.
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘Studies of Sculptural Fragments from the Vatican Museums, Including a Torso of a Satyr and the Grave Altar of Q. Gaius Musicus and Volumnia Ianuaria 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www