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

As Finberg observed in his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, Turner’s upper inscription ‘Maria Nacenti’ likely refers to the Duomo in Milan, formally known as the Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente.1 However, as the geographer and Turner researcher Roland Courtot has recently pointed out, panoramic studies of Milan appear to be interspersed here with views of Turin, a city Turner visited several days later.2 Topographically, Courtot observed, Milan lacks the high vantage point that would have afforded such elevated views over the city.3 Courtot placed Turner near the Monte dei Cappuccini hill to the east of Turin, facing north-west, with the Alps in the distance.4

Several views of Turin are dispersed throughout this sketchbook, most of which were composed from the Monte dei Cappuccini: see under folio 7 recto (D21676) for a list of relevant studies. Turner had previously visited Turin and Milan in 1819 during the outward leg of his first Italian tour: for further commentary and a list of relevant works, see Nicola Moorby’s entry for the Turin, Como, Lugarno, Maggiore sketchbook in the present catalogue (Tate D14166; Turner Bequest CLXXIV 11). See also Matthew Imms’s entry for the Milan to Venice sketchbook (Tate D14328; Turner Bequest CLXXV 2).