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

As identified by Turner’s top-right inscription ‘Staggia’, the location for these multiple views is Staggia Senese in Tuscany. Turner likely passed through this town as he journeyed south-east from Poggibonsi towards Siena. He followed the Via Francigena, a traditional pilgrimage route connecting Canterbury to Rome.1

Profiled here from several angles, the dominant subject appears to be La Rocca di Staggia, a fortified medieval castle in Staggia Senese. It is also tentatively identified as the subject of folios 9 verso and 10 recto (D21605–D21606). A distinctive feature of the castle’s square keep is the raised crenellated section on one side, a detail observed here by Turner. The composition consists of one principal view surrounded by four minor studies that radiate outwards in the corners. Details of the surrounding topography emphasise the castle’s prominent hilltop position.