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

As outlined by Cecilia Powell, this page contains three distinct views of Nepi, executed with the sketchbook oriented vertically.1 The uppermost view is dominated by the town’s aqueduct, constructed between the sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries.2 In the background is the main part of the structure with a double tier of arches, followed by a single row in front. Turner’s viewpoint is from the northern perimeter of the town, looking west.

The view beneath was captured from a similar vantage point, with Turner instead looking east towards the Church of San Bernardo. Built in the fifteenth century, the church is annexed to the Monastery of Saint Bernardo, and stands on the eastern edge of the same volcanic promontory as the town, overlooking a ravine.3 The mountain range on the horizon is possibly Monte Soratte. The architectural detail towards the left is the ornate pinnacle of the Palazzo Comunale, the town hall. At the bottom of the page is a third study, inverted relative to the two views above. Its topography is too cursory to be conclusively identified, although the subject is likely Nepi and its surroundings. The stone pine outlined in the bottom-left corner continues onto folio 19 verso (D21802) opposite.

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 and a list of relevant works, see under folio 12 verso (D21788).