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

Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Street scenes, &c.’), crossing out this wording and adding: ‘4 sketches. Ruined castles, Bridge &c.’1 The views, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, show aspects of the medieval walls of Castelfranco Veneto, on the coastal plain north-west of Venice, early on Turner’s homeward route; see the sketchbook’s Introduction for its place in his itinerary. The fortified core of the town survives on its Roman camp-like square plan, within a moat-like watercourse surrounded by an outer road, although mature trees now preclude a clear view of the walls at various points.

The top sketch is from the south-west corner, north to bridge leading to the western gateway; the foreground, with trees, is continued on folio 6 recto opposite (D31607). The next study reprises the first at the left, and looks along the south side to the middle tower and the campanile of the cathedral just beyond. In the third view, the approach to the western gateway over the bridge is seen. The small house built against the wall beyond the bridge survives; again, the foreground is continued onto the opposite page. The last view is from a little further left, looking east over the bridge; the view to the right is now hidden by trees.

There is a similar study from nearby among other subjects on the recto (D31606), and other aspects are shown on D31607, and possibly on folio 6 verso (D31608). There are more views at the other end of the sketchbook, on folios 96 verso and 97 verso–98 (D31785, D31787–D31788), showing that Turner was working inwards from both covers at this early stage; as discussed in the book’s Introduction, the sequence of identified subjects is somewhat haphazard.

The renowned but somewhat elusive Venetian painter Giorgione (?1470s–1510) was from here; his birthplace within the city walls, now a museum, is just east of the cathedral, which contains his altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints George and Nicasius. Turner had copied a figure from the Concert-champêtre variously ascribed to the artist or his illustrious contemporary Titian in his Paris Studies in the Louvre sketchbook of 1802; see David Blayney Brown’s entry for Tate D04347 (Turner Bequest LXXII 56a). While his admiration for Titian endured (see for example under Tate D31992; Turner Bequest CCCXIV 34a, in the Venice sketchbook used immediately before this one), there is nothing to suggest that Turner was conscious of Castelfranco’s connection with Giorgione, and he likely drew here in passing simply on account of its picturesque qualities.