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

As identified by Cecilia Powell, this page contains two views of the Piazza Cavalli in the historic centre of Piacenza, a city Turner approached from Bologna to the south-east. Turner’s vantage point for the upper sketch was from the north-eastern side of the square, facing south-west. In view is the thirteenth-century Palazzo Comunale, the civic seat of government known alternatively as ‘il Gotico’. Architectural features of the façade are economically rendered, including the portico with pointed arches, the round-arched windows on the first floor, and the Ghibelline or ‘swallowtail’ crenellations above. Also indicated are the two seventeenth-century bronze equestrian statues by the sculptor Francesco Mochi, positioned either side of the palace. They depict the Farnese Dukes of Parma: Alessandro and Ranuccio. The lower sketch offers a variant perspective, capturing the palace from an oblique angle from the southern side of the square, facing west.

A further view of Piacenza, featuring the city’s cathedral, appears on folio 45 recto opposite (D14911). Turner also produced an earlier pencil study of ‘il Gotici’ in Piacenza during his first major Italian tour of 1819–20: see Nicola Moorby’s entry for the Return from Italy sketchbook in the present catalogue (Tate D16749; Turner Bequest CXCII 60 a).