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

While Finberg’s 1909 Inventory of the Bequest interpreted Turner’s lower inscription as ‘St. Cosimo’, it likely reads ‘S^t Casiano’, presumably a reference to San Casciano in Val di Pesa.1 Turner passed this Tuscan village, located around ten miles south-west of Florence, as he journeyed towards Siena. The proximity of the views on the page makes it difficult to establish where one ends and the other begins; the upper view appears to show the hilltop village to the left, surrounded by foliage. Less clearly delineated, the lower view is dotted with hilltop buildings and a bridge in the right foreground. The location of the ‘Road’ is indicated in both views. San Casciano is also identified as the subject of the recto (D21594).