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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Second Italian Tour 1828-9 > Roman and French Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner TEST D 20250403 Inscriptions by Turner: Notes on Perugino's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds' and Other Matters 1828-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘TEST D 20250403 Inscriptions by Turner: Notes on Perugino's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds' and Other Matters’ 1828-9
Folio 1 Verso:
TEST D 20250403 Inscriptions by Turner: Notes on Perugino’s ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’ and Other Matters 1828–9
D21853
Turner Bequest CCXXXVII 1a
Pencil on white wove paper, 88 x 71 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner with several lines of notes (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turning the sketchbook vertically and in alternating positions, Turner jotted down these brief notes, many of which are illegible. In his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest, Finberg transcribed the lower inscription, which appears upside down, as ‘Adoration of the Shepherds at Perugia’.1 The final word may rather end in ‘gino’, and is likely a reference to the Renaissance artist Pietro Vannucci (or Vanucci), also known as ‘Perugino’, of the Umbrian school (working 1460s–died 1523). Vannucci’s lunette-shaped fresco The Adoration of the Shepherds was originally located in the Church of San Francesco al Monte in Perugia.2 Now found in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia, it has recently undergone restoration.
Turner perhaps noted down this work at the outset of his journey with the intention of visiting Perugia to view the work in situ, although his final itinerary did not include this location. The inscriptions above are more difficult to decipher.

Hannah Kaspar
December 2024

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.725.
2
‘Perugino’s Adoration of the Shepherds Fresco Restored’, Sotheby’s, accessed 27 November 2024, https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/peruginos-adoration-of-the-shepherds-fresco-restored.

How to cite

Hannah Kaspar, ‘TEST D 20250403 Inscriptions by Turner: Notes on Perugino’s ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’ and Other Matters 1828–9’, catalogue entry, December 2024, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, February 2025, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/test-d-20250403-inscriptions-by-turner-notes-on-peruginos-the-adoration-of-the-shepherds-r1210411, accessed 15 April 2025.