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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice and Botzen Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace), Venice, with the Libreria Sansoviniana, Zecca (Mint), and Campanile of San Marco (St Mark's), from the Bacino 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace), Venice, with the Libreria Sansoviniana, Zecca (Mint), and Campanile of San Marco (St Mark's), from the Bacino’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
The Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), Venice, with the Libreria Sansoviniana, Zecca (Mint), and Campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s), from the Bacino 1840
D31801
Turner Bequest CCCXIII 6
Pencil on cream wove paper, 123 x 173 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘6’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXIII – 6’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg later extended his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Ducal Palace, Campanile, &c. (Note. – The Campanile has scaffolding round its summit.’): ‘in all sketches in this book CFB’.1 The initials are those of the Turner scholar C.F. Bell.
Made with the page turned horizontally, the view is from the Bacino, off the right-hand end of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) on the right, looking north-west along the Molo to the columns at the opening of the Piazzetta, with the Libreria Sansoviniana and Zecca (Mint) at the left. Rising at the centre, at the far end of the Piazzetta, is the campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s). The scaffolding at the top mentioned by Finberg and Bell is actually seen in the upwards continuation of the spire across folio 5 verso opposite (D31800); its presence, as seen in numerous other drawings linked to the 1840 tour (see the overall Introduction), is a consistent indication for dating.2
Compare Tate D32180 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 1), also associated with this tour, a less accurate rendition from a similar angle in gouache and watercolour on grey paper. The drawing on the verso of the present leaf (D31802), with the right-hand half of the Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of Sighs to its east, is effectively a continuation of the subject.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.8.
2
See also George 1971, p.86.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), Venice, with the Libreria Sansoviniana, Zecca (Mint), and Campanile of San Marco (St Mark’s), from the Bacino 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-palazzo-ducale-doges-palace-venice-with-the-libreria-r1196695, accessed 17 July 2024.