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 15 Verso:
Notes by Turner from Eustace’s ‘A Classical Tour Through Italy’ circa 1819
D13960
Turner Bequest CLXXII 15 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:
Gallery Vasaria Villa’s Pratolino Caiano | and Carreggi ^Carreggi^ Fiesole or Fæsulæ abbey. | Castle of Romene. village of Poppi Bibiena | Prata Vecchio Camaldoli abbey. | Pietra Mala Fontbuono Tagliffaro | Cafaggiolo Maschera delightful. Walls of Scarperia | Forest of Gagliano 4 Miles from Covigliaio the Flame | Florence to Pistoia Seravalle castle and village | Pescia Bridge Lucca walls cathedral Sax | Baths 14 M NW Plain to Ponte Amoriano | Pisa hanging tower cathedral 3 Bridges Walls | 7 M Santa Maria della Spina whimsical | Gotico Tedesco from German Moresco Gothic Moors. | Baptistry. Campanile. 14 feet from the vertical line | Baths 4 M near Mt St Giuliano an ancient and modern | aqueduct Leghorn to Genoa | Strada Balbi – | S. Nova S Novissima Durazzo Palace Doria | Doge Di Carignano below of Bridge Church. | Moles. Harbour two wall 7 Miles and 13 | Village 1/2 a mile from the Gate of Genoa. San | Pier d’Arena Villa Imperiali by Palladio | Campo Marone Bocchetta Giogo Jugum – | Polcevera river | via Posthumia Fortress of Gavi Novi | Alessandria & Citadel of Tortonia Marengo 2 M | from Alessandrio Fortress. Vaghiera plain of Milan | Pavia. Agustus visited here the ashes of Drusus | Boetius and St Agustine ashes, rest in the Church | In Cielo Aureo. 4 M from Pavia Abbey of Chiaravalle | Battle of Pavia near
These notes relate to various passages from volume III of Eustace’s text and condense parts of the author’s account of Florence and the journey from Florence to Milan.2 Turner inexplicably refers to the ‘hanging’ rather than the leaning tower of Pisa. Many of the destinations listed here such as Genoa and Pisa were not part of his 1819 tour to Italy but formed part of the itinerary of the second trip in 1828, see the Genoa to Florence sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCXXXIII).
For a general discussion of Turner’s notes from Eustace see the introduction to the sketchbook.

Nicola Moorby
July 2008

1
Powell 1984, pp.400–1.
2
John Chetwode Eustace, A Classical Tour Through Italy, London 1815, 3rd edition, vol.III, pp.360–514.

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-r1138781, accessed 22 November 2024.