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

The left half of this page features part of a panorama of Nepi in the Viterbo province, which begins on folio 12 verso (D21788) opposite, and includes the Palazzo Comunale and Church of San Pietro, among other monuments. The principal landmark depicted here is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, which stands on the site of an ancient Roman forum.1 The belltower once had a spire, as shown here by Turner, a feature that no longer exists. Reconstructive works were carried out on the cathedral between 1818 and 1840, which the artist may well have witnessed.

In the foreground below is a stretch of the aqueduct, designed in the ancient Roman style and constructed between the sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries.2 Turner’s vantage point for this panoramic view of Nepi was likely from the north-west. This is one of twenty-one works depicting Nepi in the present sketchbook; for further commentary on Turner’s second visit to the town in 1828, together with a list of relevant works, see under folio 12 verso (D21788). For a similar composition from Turner’s first major tour of Italy in 1819–20, see the double-page panorama in the Ancona to Rome sketchbook (Tate D14814–D14815; Turner Bequest CLXXVII 82a–83).

To the right of the page, inverted relative to the view of Nepi, is a rough sketch of the neighbouring town of Ronciglione, located further to the west. Turner’s upside-down inscription confirms this location. In view is the eastern slope of the town and the early seventeenth-century Porta Romana, the main gateway from the south. See under folio 8 recto (D21779) for a more extensive commentary on this location and a list of relevant works in the sketchbook.