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

Orienting the sketchbook horizontally, Turner produced this panoramic survey of Siena from the south. As identified by Cecilia Powell, the building in the top-left corner is the south-eastern façade of the Church of San Giuseppe.1 A more detailed rendering of the church’s ornate front façade, presumably sketched immediately before the present study, appears on folio 10 verso opposite (D21607). The church is also identified by Turner’s upper-left inscription ‘S^t Joseph’, an anglicisation of San Giuseppe.

After approaching the Church of San Giuseppe, Turner evidently branched off to the right along the Via di Fontanella, a pathway to which the lower inscription ‘Via Font[...]’ refers. Facing north, he traced the city’s skyline, which is dominated at the centre by the Torre del Mangia, a fourteenth-century civic tower.2 It overlooks the city’s main square, the Piazza del Campo, and lies adjacent to the town hall, the Palazzo Pubblico. As indicated here by Turner, the stone parapet and belfry towards the top are crenellated. The buildings towards the right are more sparsely detailed, among them the Church of San Martino.

For further commentary on Turner’s first visit to Siena in 1828, together with a list of relevant works in the sketchbook, see under folio 10 verso (D21607).