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

Turner oriented the sketchbook vertically to note down several inscriptions and markings, which Finberg partially transcribed in his 1909 Inventory of the Bequest.1 The upper inscription appears to refer to a church ‘opposite the Villa | Mattei’. This is possibly a reference to the Villa Celimontana in Rome, formerly known as the Casino or Palazzetto Mattei, which stands on the Caelian Hill south of the Colosseum. The land was purchased in the sixteenth century by Ciriaco Mattei, and a villa built on the site.2

The church opposite to which Turner refers, and which he possibly thought was ‘Franciscan’, might be the Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio, which contains a cycle of frescoes by the artist Pomarancio. The lower inscriptions and markings are more difficult to decipher, but may include ‘Raffel H’ below an extremely slight sketch map; this could possibly be connected with Rome’s Cassino di Raffaelo, a summer-house (since lost) then associated with the renowned painter Raphael (1482–1520) and seen from various angles in the 1819 St Peter’s sketchbook (see under Tate D16233; Turner Bequest CLXXXVIII 43a).