J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

The subject of this sketch is the straight, tree-lined section of the Via Appia known as ‘La Fettuccia’ (‘The Ribbon’), which runs through the Pontine marshes to Terracina. Turner followed this road during his journey south between Rome and Naples. The foreground object on the left-hand side of the view appears to be a square-shaped cippus, an ancient Roman pillar, from which the artist has partially copied the Latin dedication. This is one of a number of monuments commemorating repairs to the Via Appia by Emperors Nerva and Trajan, possibly the one found on the left-hand side of the road just outside Borgo di Faiti.1 Alternatively, it is the same one seen in a sketch of Mesa, a village approximately ten miles north-west of Terracina, see folio 14 verso (D15582). The mountain range visible in the distance to the left is the Monti Lepini (also known as the Volscian Mountains), whilst on the right is the distinctive profile of the promontory of Monte Circeo. The landscape was described by Revd John Chetwode Eustace in A Classical Tour Through Italy, first published in 1815:

Turner owned a copy of Eustace’s publication and made notes on the relevant pages in the Italian Guide Book sketchbook (Tate D13953; Turner Bequest CLXXII 12).

There are several monuments commemorating Nerva and Trajan’s endeavours to be found along this stretch of the Via Appia. John Gage has suggested that Latin text transcribed here was the same one noted by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in his contemporary travel publication, A Classical Tour in Italy and Sicily, published 1819, a copy of which Turner owned.3 However, this inscription in fact belongs to a different cylindrical milliary (milestone) which still stands on one side of the door of the eighteenth-century post-house at Mesa.4 A sketch of this building can be found on folio 13 (D15579). Another cippus at Tor Tre Ponti can also be seen on folio 14 verso (D15582).