Joseph Mallord William Turner View of the Arch of Titus and the Temple of Venus and Roma, from the Arch of Constantine and the Meta Sudans, Rome 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
View of the Arch of Titus and the Temple of Venus and Roma, from the Arch of Constantine and the Meta Sudans, Rome
1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
View of the Arch of Titus and the Temple of Venus and Roma, from the Arch of Constantine and the Meta Sudans, Rome 1819
D16367
Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 40
Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 40
Gouache, pencil, watercolour and grey watercolour wash on white wove ‘Whatman’ paper, 225 x 367 mm
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 40’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 40’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (599).
1931
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, lent from the British Museum, National Gallery, Millbank, Tate Gallery, London 1931–March 1934 (no catalogue).
1938
Four Screens, British Museum, London, March–September 1938 (no catalogue).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November 1963, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March 1964, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April 1964, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May 1964, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (20, as ‘Rome, the Arch of Constantine, and the Arch of Titus in the Distance’).
1965
[Display of watercolours from the Turner Bequest], Tate Gallery, London, –?March 1965 (no catalogue).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (220, reproduced, as ‘Rome: the Forum, with the Arches of Constantine and Titus’).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (30, reproduced, as ‘Rome, Het Forum, de bogen van Constantijn en Titus’).
1979
Exposicion del Gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, August–September 1979 (BM 28, reproduced).
1979
Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela, October[–?November] 1979 (BM 28).
1981
Turner’s First Visit to Italy, 1819: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1981 (no catalogue).
1990
The Third Decade: Turner Watercolours 1810–1820, Tate Gallery, London, January–April 1990 (37, reproduced).
1996
Imagining Rome: British Artists and Rome in the Nineteenth Century, City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, May–June 1996 (3, reproduced).
2000
Pure as Italian Air: Turner and Claude Lorrain, Tate Britain, London, November 2000–April 2001 (no catalogue).
2002
Turner et le Lorrain, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy, December 2002–March 2003 (49, reproduced in colour).
2007
Hockney on Turner Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, June 2007–February 2008 (no number).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, no.599, pp.299, frame no.110, drawing no.230, 636, as ‘Rome. Arches of Constantine and Titus’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.563, as ‘Arches of Constantine and Titus. Mixed pure and body colour. 599, N.G.’.
1920
D[ugald] S[utherland] MacColl, National Gallery, Millbank: Catalogue: Turner Collection, London 1920, p.88.
1925
Thomas Ashby, Turner’s Visions of Rome, London and New York 1925, p.27, reproduced in colour between pp.22–3 pl.19, as ‘Arches of Constantine and Titus’.
1939
Camille Mauclair, Turner, London and Toronto [William Heinemann] 1939; ‘translated from the French by Eveline Byam Shaw’, reproduced in colour, p.41, as ‘Arches of Constantine and Titus’.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 1963, no.20, pp.10, 17, as ‘Rome, the Arch of Constantine, and the Arch of Titus in the Distance’.
1974
Martin Butlin, Andrew Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, no.220, p.88, reproduced [p.87], as ‘Rome: the Forum, with the Arches of Constantine and Titus’.
1978
John Sillevis, Nini Jonker and Hripsimé Visser, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 1978, no.30, p.64 reproduced, as ‘Rome, Het Forum, de bogen van Constantijn en Titus’.
1979
John Gage, Exposicion del gran pintor ingles, William Turner: Oleos y acuarelas: Collecciones de la Tate Gallery, British Museum y otros museos ingleses, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City 1979, no.BM 27, reproduced p.31, as ‘Roma, El Foro, con el Arco de Constantino y el de Tito’.
1979
John Gage and Ana T. de Gradowska, Oleos y acuarelas de Joseph Mallord William Turner, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela 1979, no.BM 28, as ‘Roma, el Foro, con los Arcos de Constantino y Tito’.
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, p.122, reproduced pl.66, as ‘The Arches of Constantine and Titus, the Meta Sudans and the Temple of Venus and Rome’.
1987
Cecilia Powell, Turner in the South: Rome, Naples, Florence, New Haven and London 1987, p.49, reproduced p.27 colour pl.3, as ‘The Arches of Constantine and Titus, the Meta Sudans and the Temple of Venus and Rome’.
1990
Diane Perkins, The Third Decade: Turner Watercolours 1810–1820, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1990, no.37 reproduced, as ‘Rome: The Arches of Constantine and Titus’.
1992
Joyce H. Townsend, ‘Turner Research Project: Information on Painting Materials via Standard Imaging Techniques’, Journal of Photographic Science, vol.40, 1992, p.64, Table 3 [incorrectly as oil on prepared paper].
1995
William L. Pressly, ‘On Classic Ground: James Barry’s “Memorials” of the Italian Landscape’, in Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol.54, no.2, 1995, pp.18–19, fig.6.
1996
Michael Liversidge and Catherine Edwards, Imagining Rome: British Artists and Rome in the Nineteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol 1996, pp.73–4 no.3, reproduced, as ‘Rome. The Arches of Constantine and Titus, the Meta Sudans, and the Temple of Venus and Roma’.
2002
Ian Warrell, Blandine Chavanne and Michael Kitson, Turner et le Lorrain, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy 2002, pp.36, 106, 182, 192 under no.48 and no.49, reproduced in colour pp.106–7, as ‘Rome: les arcs de Constantine et de Titus, le Meta Sudans et le temple de Vénus à Rome / Rome: the Arches of Constantine and Titus, the Meta Sudans and the Temple of Venus and Rome’.
2007
David Blayney Brown, Turner Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2007, p.61, reproduced in colour, as ‘Rome: Arches of Constantine and Titus’.
Technique and condition
In this composition, the paper was given a grey wash, and opaque white gouache mixed with many colours was applied everywhere, to give an appearance almost like oil paint. This conceals the colour of the paper, which is quite likely to be white. The arch has been moved farther to the left, and coloured.
A number of warm-toned and yellow/brown earth colours were used, and the terracotta and buff shades may include Indian yellow, a pigment which Turner used in watercolour occasionally in earlier years, but more rarely by this time. It is recognisable by its golden glow when the sheet is examined in ultraviolet light. The bright blue of the sky could only be achieved with an intense blue pigment such as Prussian blue. The other possibility of cobalt blue can be discounted, because it would have been recognisable in ultraviolet light had it been present.
An X-radiograph was made of the whole sheet, to investigate the gouache. This indicated that for the buildings, cows and people it was made from lead white, not chalk as used by most watercolour artists at this time. Lead white is the very opaque pigment that Turner and all his contemporaries used in oil paint, and he frequently used the full range of pigments that he employed in oil paint, ground in gum water for application to paper. Lead white is so dense that it absorbs X-rays completely, so an X-radiograph of either a painting or a watercolour can reveal the patterns of its use, and can also reveal areas where the artist altered the composition without scraping off the earlier paint completely. That is the reason that a change in the position of the arch is known here, and also the reason that it can be stated confidently that Turner frequently used lead white in gouache, and thereby established a trend which later watercolour artists would follow. The dense gouache is particularly effective when contrasted with the bright blue sky here, and Turner used it regularly for white highlights and sometimes for extensive and key parts of the composition, to achieve a visually similar effect on blue paper for both studies and finished watercolours.
Red vermilion pigment used also shows up in an X-radiograph, since it is made from mercury sulphide, and mercury is almost as heavy an element as is lead. Thus, X-radiography can be used as a non-destructive method for identifying two of Turner's pigment in watercolour, and for giving confidence to visual judgements that vermilion is present in other works that have not been X-rayed.
Helen Evans
October 2008
Revised by Joyce Townsend
March 2011
How to cite
Helen Evans, 'Technique and Condition', October 2008, revised by Joyce Townsend, March 2011, in Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Arch of Titus and the Temple of Venus and Roma, from the Arch of Constantine and the Meta Sudans, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://wwwThe subject of this coloured study is the eastern end of the Roman Forum. Turner’s viewpoint is just in front of the Colosseum, with his back to the famous amphitheatre, looking west down the Via Sacra. Dominating the left-hand side of the picture is an oblique view of the Arch of Constantine, whilst the foreground object to the right is the Meta Sudans, a conical fountain dating from the first century, demolished by Mussolini in 1936. The perspectival focal point of composition is the Arch of Titus, which stands in the central middle distance with the Temple of Venus and Roma on the right, and the Palatine Hill on the left. Thomas Ashby has identified the tower to the immediate left of the Arch as the Turris Cartularia, a building which once contained the archives of the Church of Rome, but which was demolished in 1828.1 In the far distance is the Capitoline Hill, with the campanile of the Senatorial Palace. The small figurative group in the immediate foreground includes a man driving two cows, a reminder of the nineteenth-century usage of the Forum as a market for livestock which had led the modern appellation of the site as the ‘Campo Vaccino’ (Field of Cattle). Like many drawings within the Rome C. Studies sketchbook, the composition has been executed over a washed grey background. Turner first sketched a rough pencil outline before more fully developing the view in watercolour and gouache.
The Forum represented the heart of political, commercial and judicial life in ancient Rome and during his 1819 sojourn in Rome, Turner made numerous sketches of its magnificent buildings and monuments (see for example, the Albano, Nemi, Rome sketchbook, the St Peter’s sketchbook, the Small Roman C. Studies sketchbook, all Tate). The Rome: C. Studies sketchbook contains a number of detailed compositions, some developed in colour, principally featuring views of the eastern end with the Colosseum, and the Arches of Constantine and Titus (see D16351, D16354, D16355, D16365, D16370, D16372, D16375, D16376, D16379, D16389; Turner Bequest CLXXXIX 25, 28, 29, 38, 43, 44, 46, 47, 50, 58). These ideas would later evolve into the large finished oil painting, Forum Romanum, for Mr Soane’s Museum exhibited 1826 (Tate N00504).2
Verso:
Blank; inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘CLXXXIX-40’ bottom centre right, and stamped in black ‘CLXXXIX 40’ bottom centre.
Nicola Moorby
October 2009
How to cite
Nicola Moorby, ‘View of the Arch of Titus and the Temple of Venus and Roma, from the Arch of Constantine and the Meta Sudans, Rome 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www