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 > Venice to Ancona Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), Venice, with the Torre d'Orologio (Clock Tower), Basilica, Campanile and Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) 1819

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), Venice, with the Torre d'Orologio (Clock Tower), Basilica, Campanile and Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)’ 1819
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 2 Recto:
The Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), Venice, with the Torre d’Orologio (Clock Tower), Basilica, Campanile and Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) 1819
D14491
Turner Bequest CLXXVI 2
Pencil on white wove paper, 111 x 184 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Blue Stars Gold’, ‘Purple | Virgin Gold | [...] of [...]’ and ‘Blue | sign of | Zodiac’ centre left, beside clock tower, and ‘B’ towards top right, on dome
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CLXXVI – 2’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg subsequently annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Piazza San Marco’): ‘– details Horologio [sic]’.1 In another copy he noted: ‘Clock Tower S. Marco Camp. & Doge’s Pal.’2 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell wrote in another copy: ‘Torre dell’Orologio l. to Campanile & Porta della Carta’.3 The viewpoint is south-west of the campanile, looking north-east to the clock tower and basilica, and east-north-east to the Porta della Carta and the northern end of the range of the Doge’s Palace facing the Piazzetta. The west front of the church and the campanile are barely indicated, having been covered in detail in the contemporary Milan to Venice sketchbook (see for example Tate D14397; Turner Bequest CLXXV 44).
For other drawings made in the vicinity, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.
1
Undated MS note by A.J. Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.516.
2
Undated MS note by Finberg in copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.516.
3
Undated MS note by C.F. Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Tate Britain Prints and Drawings Room, I, p.516.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
March 2017

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square), Venice, with the Torre d’Orologio (Clock Tower), Basilica, Campanile and Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) 1819 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2017, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, July 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-piazza-san-marco-st-marks-square-venice-with-the-torre-r1186226, accessed 22 November 2024.