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

Turner’s exploration of Pompeii began at the north-west entrance to the site, the Via dei Sepolcri or Via delle Tombe (Street of the Tombs) which could be reached directly from the nineteenth-century road between Naples and Salerno. This sketch depicts the view looking east towards the city walls and the Porta Ercolano (Herculaneum Gate), represented by the two arches flanking the street at the vanishing point of the composition. Turner’s viewpoint is just outside the entrance to the Villa of Diomedes, which takes its name from the inscription to Marcus Arrius Diomedes on the opposite side of the road, see folio 5 verso (D15747). As Cecilia Powell has discussed, the artist made a significant number of drawings from various angles up and down the Via dei Sepolcri, and consequently some of the ancient tombs appear repeatedly in different views.1 Amongst the monuments which can be seen in this vista are, on the left-hand side of the road, the Tomb of Velasius Gratus and the Tomb of Libella and his son, and on the right, the Tomb of Scaurus, and the Tomb of Naevolia Tyche. A more detailed study of these structures can be found on folio 5 verso (D15747). For near-contemporaneous views of a similar nature see James Hakewill (1778–1843), Entrance of Pompeii from Rome 1816 (British School at Rome Library),2 and an engraving after an 1817 drawing by James Pattinson Cockburn (1779–1847).3

For a general discussion of Turner’s visit to Pompeii see the introduction to the sketchbook.