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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > First Italian Tour 1819-20 > Rome and Florence Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View from Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill, with the River Tiber and Monte Testaccio 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View from Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill, with the River Tiber and Monte Testaccio’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
View from Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill, with the River Tiber and Monte Testaccio 1819
D16494
Turner Bequest CXCI 6
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
Inscribed by the artist in pencil ‘S Maria della Priorata’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CXCI 6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s inscription in the bottom left-hand corner of this page reveals his viewpoint for this sketch as Santa Maria del Priorato, the Church of the Knights of Malta situated on the Aventine Hill in Rome. From this elevated position he has drawn the view looking south towards the River Tiber. The small hill left of centre is Monte Testaccio, an artificial mound constructed from a Roman pottery dump, whilst the arches in the centre of the sketch are part of a stretch of the Aurelian walls which ran from the Porta San Paolo to the Tiber and could still be seen during the nineteenth century. Sketches of this part of the city from the opposite bank of the river can be found in the St Peter’s sketchbook (see Tate D16253; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 54). Meanwhile, Turner went on to draw the view from Monte Testaccio on the next pages of this sketchbook, see folios 6 verso–8 (D16495–D16498).

Nicola Moorby
February 2009

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘View from Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill, with the River Tiber and Monte Testaccio 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-from-santa-maria-del-priorato-on-the-aventine-hill-with-r1138387, accessed 21 November 2024.