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

As identified by the Turner scholars Cecilia Powell and Roland Courtot, this panoramic view depicts Ronciglione in the Viterbo province. The attenuated tower at the centre is the Romanesque belltower of the Church of Santa Maria della Provvidenza.1 Turner’s depiction captures the precarious position of the church overlooking a ravine. Faintly outlined in the distance is the dome of the Cathedral of Santi Pietro e Caterina. In the foreground is the early seventeenth-century Porta Romana, the main gateway to the city from the south. As noted by Courtot, Turner’s viewpoint for this sketch was facing north-west from the slopes of a gorge, capturing the steep, rocky incline.2

This is one of almost a dozen works in the present sketchbook depicting Ronciglione; see under the recto (D21779) for an extended commentary and a list of relevant works.