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’. The subject of this architectural study, executed with the sketchbook turned horizontally, is the Palazzo dei Giureconsulti, located on the Piazza dei Mercanti in Milan, just west of the Duomo. Constructed from 1562, it was commissioned by the Milanese nobleman Giovanni Angelo Medici, later Pope Pius IV, and designed by the architect Vincenzo Seregni.1 In 1809 it hosted the first Milan Stock Exchange, as it would have functioned at the time of Turner’s visit.

Turner’s vantage point was from the northern corner of the Piazza dei Mercanti, looking south-east to capture this oblique view of the building. The double columns of the arcade are swiftly outlined, and the partially cropped clocktower towards the top is reproduced as a separate profile to the right. A plaque above the clock reads ‘FABRICIO BOSSIO | VRBIS PRÆFECTO’, which Turner attempted to transcribe in the top-right corner of the page. In the distance are the spires of the Duomo; see under folio 10 verso (D21683) for further commentary and a list of relevant views from this sketchbook and Turner’s earlier visit to the city in 1819.