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

As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, this panorama depicts the steep topography of Ronciglione, a town bordering Lake Vico in the Viterbo province.1 The artist’s low viewpoint is from a ravine, looking west towards the volcanic rock on which the town is perched. Towards the right, the dome and belltower of the Cathedral of Santi Pietro e Caterina are visible. A more detailed rendering of these architectural features is reproduced separately in the bottom-right corner. The rough outline of buildings in the top-right corner is presumably part of the town further south, the archway likely the seventeenth-century Porta Romana.

This is one of almost a dozen works in the present sketchbook depicting Ronciglione; see under folio 8 recto (D21779) for an extended commentary and a list of relevant works.