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

Turner noted inside the front cover of this sketchbook (D41050) that he arrived in Milan at noon on a Wednesday (14 January), complaining of ‘Snow all the way’. This is one of ten works in the sketchbook depicting the city’s famous Duomo, formally known as the Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente. See under folio 10 verso (D21683) for further commentary and a list of relevant views from this sketchbook and Turner’s earlier visit to Milan in 1819.

As suggested by Finberg in his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, Turner’s lower inscription possibly reads ‘S^t Raffaele’, placing him along the Via San Raffaele, which branches off the Piazza del Duomo to the north.1 Looking south, Turner glimpsed the northern side of the cathedral between the buildings, retaining the sketchbook’s upright position to emphasise the verticality of the composition. Visible in the top-left corner is the tall lantern spire, an addition to the cathedral from the 1760s.2 Surmounting it is a gold statue of the Virgin Mary, known as Madonnina. The building with the elaborate pediments to the left has since been demolished and replaced with a department store.