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

Turner noted inside the front cover of this sketchbook (D41050) that he arrived in Milan at noon on a Wednesday (14 January), complaining of ‘Snow all the way’. This is one of ten works in the sketchbook depicting the city’s Duomo, formally known as the Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente. See under folio 10 verso (D21683) for further commentary and a list of relevant views from this sketchbook and Turner’s earlier visit to Milan of 1819.

Here, rather than focusing on the cathedral’s familiar front façade, Turner opted for this oblique view of the side of the building, orienting the sketchbook horizontally to fill the expanse of the page. His vantage point was from the northern edge of the Piazza del Duomo, near the present-day Via Santa Radegonda. With characteristic economy for such a complex building, the distant pinnacles and buildings to the right are merely outlined, with much of the detailing concentrated on the Gothic window tracery and decorative masonry.