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 > Italian Guide Book Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy' c.1819

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace's 'A Classical Tour Through Italy'’ c.1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 9 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13948
Turner Bequest CLXXII 9 a
Inscribed by the artist in black ink (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 155 x 99 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page is one of several sides of extensive notes made by Turner from A Classical Tour Through Italy by Revd John Chetwode Eustace. The source was first identified by Cecilia Powell, who also transcribed Turner’s notes in full in the Appendix of her 1984 PhD thesis, ‘Turner on Classic Ground: His Visits to Central and Southern Italy and Related Paintings and Drawings’.1 The inscription is repeated here with only minor variations from her text:
and Mt Parnassus Incendio del Borgo Victory | of Pope Leo over the Saracens at Ostia the | coronation of Charlemagne. the baso-relivo | spandrels by Carravaggio Sala Belvidere | Grand Gallery leads to the Museum Pio-Clem | entinum Vestibula Quardrato Rotondo | Camera Baccho Sala degli Animale Galleria | delle Statue Stanze delle Buste. Il Gabinetro | adorned with paintings sculptures and architecture Gallery | Stanze delle Buste Sali degli Animale | Temple or hall of the Muses [sketch] Camera many | ancient capitals mosaic floor statues | camero: Salia Rotonda statues. Sala | a Croce Greca scarcopogas [sic] of red porphyry | Constantine tomb Galleria Candelabria | tombs altars tripods statues Galleria de | Quadri. pictures circular temple of marble | on Corinthian col and bronze antique chariot | Ganganelli and Pius 6th the founders – | Churches. | St Clemente the most ancient St Pietro in | Vincoli in chains 420 tomb of Julius 2 by Mi Ang | St Martino & St Silvestro from the ruins of Titus baths | the Crypta, old as Constantine 2 Pictures Poussin two | St Andrea. Mt Cavallo gaudy St Cecilia | in Trastevere. Statue of St Cecilia, as said [?her] | discovered 821. S Pietro in Montorio or Mt | Aureo pictures and statue the Transfiguration | was here – in the middle of the Square
These notes relate to various passages from volume II of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Rome and its environs.2 For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.
Amongst the sites and works of art mentioned in the above passage, Turner made extensive sketches of the Vatican’s Museo Pio-Clementino, including the red porphyry Sarcophagus of Constantia in the Sala a Croce Greca (see the Vatican Fragments sketchbook, Tate D15194; Turner Bequest CLXXX 46).

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.387–8.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.II, pp.52–85.

How to cite

Nicola Moorby, ‘Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ c.1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, 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-notes-by-turner-from-eustaces-a-classical-tour-through-italy-r1138769, accessed 22 November 2024.