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

This page contains four studies of hilltop towns near Siena, which are faintly demarcated with pencil lines. Turner’s central inscription ‘Mont Reggione’ identifies the location as the medieval fortified town of Monteriggioni, north-west of Siena. As illustrated by the lower study, the town is enclosed within ramparts and evenly spaced watchtowers. To the right, Turner’s inscription ‘Road’ marks the route towards a distant town on the horizon, which Finberg tentatively identified as Siena in his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest.1A separate annotation beneath the middle study may read ‘Road’ or ‘Ruin’. Monteriggioni is also provisionally identified as the subject of the verso (D21611).