ºÚÁÏÉç

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Forum Romanum, for Mr Soane’s Museum  exhibited 1826

Turner depicts the Forum, the heart of governmental, social and religious life in ancient Rome. By the time he visited in the early 19th century it had become an active archaeological site and tourist destination. On the left is the Arch of Titus, and on the right the vaults of the Basilica of Constantine. A modern religious group is on procession through the ruins, contrasting the decaying splendour of the ancient monuments. The work was intended for the home of Turner’s close friend, the architect John Soane, but he declined to buy it.

Gallery label, March 2025

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Regulus  1828, reworked 1837

Turner painted and exhibited this during his three-month stay in Rome in 1828. Its dazzling effect is deliberate. Regulus was a Roman leader who was captured by the Carthaginians. His eyelids were cut off, leaving him blinded by the sun. Regulus may be the figure in white at the top of the stairs on the right-hand side. When he showed this painting in London in 1837 Turner was seen making last-minute changes. His palette apparently contained nothing but a ‘huge lump’ of white. As well as exaggerating the blazing sunlight, he may have also been covering damage the painting had suffered in transit back from Italy.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Shade and Darkness - the Evening of the Deluge  exhibited 1843

Pair to 'Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory), The Morning after the Deluge - Moses writing the Book of Genesis'. In these companion pictures, Turner opposes cool and warm colours, and their contrasting emotional associations, as described by Goethe in his 'Farbenlehre' (Theory of Colours). Turner has chosen the biblical Deluge as the vehicle for these ideas, returning to the Historical Sublime he had mastered in some of his earliest exhibition pictures. Originally painted and framed as octagons, this pair carries two of Turner's last and most inspired statements of the natural vortex, while the allusion to Goethe adds a gloss of recent science and theory to a lifetime's preoccupation with elemental forces.

Gallery label, August 2004

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire ...  exhibited 1817

Exhibited two years after France’s defeat at Waterloo by British and allied forces, this luminous harbour scene would have been understood as a reflection of contemporary European politics. It shows the sun setting on Carthage, North Africa, the centre of the most powerful empire until the rise of ancient Rome. Turner compares warring Rome and Carthage to the rival empires of Britain and France. The scene is inspired by the work of 17th-century painter Claude Lorrain (known as Claude). Its pair, showing the sun rising on the Carthaginian Empire, hangs alongside a painting by Claude in the National Gallery, as Turner requested in his will.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Venice, the Bridge of Sighs  exhibited 1840

Turner painted Venice on smaller canvases with a new kind of customer in mind – the middle-classes. Many of them holidayed in Venice, inspired by Romantic poet Byron, who had lived there. He had written movingly of how this once-splendid republic had lost its independence – taken over by Napoleon in 1797 and then Austria in 1815.This glittering painting shows one of Venice’s most famous sights, the Bridge of Sighs, between the Doge’s Palace and the city’s prison. Turner exhibited it with lines adapted from Byron: ‘I stood upon a bridge, a palace and / A prison on each hand’.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Opening of the Wallhalla, 1842  exhibited 1843

Returning from Venice in 1840, Turner saw the nearly completed Walhalla by the River Danube. Set into the hillside, this gigantic monument was built to celebrate German history and culture after the defeat of Napoleon and removal of French rule. Turner imagines its opening, painting in a feast and a procession on horseback in the right-hand foreground. It was shown in London in 1843 and Munich in 1845. Despite Turner’s intent for it to be a tribute, it was taken as an insult because of its hazy atmosphere and lack of precision. When it was returned damaged, Turner reacted like a ‘hen in a fury’.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Dogana, San Giorgio, Citella, from the Steps of the Europa  exhibited 1842

Gallery label, August 2024

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) - the Morning after the Deluge - Moses Writing the Book of Genesis  exhibited 1843

Pair to 'Shade and Darkness - The Evening of the Deluge'. This triumphant explosion of light brilliantly exploits the warm side of the spectrum. It celebrates God's Covenant with Man after the Flood. The serpent in the centre represents the brazen serpent raised by Moses in the wilderness as a cure for plague. Here it symbolises Christ's redemption of Man in the New Covenant. Turner's verses rather undermine the optimism of the religious message by emphasising the transience of the natural phenomena engendered by the 'returning sun'.

Gallery label, November 1992

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Rome, from the Vatican. Raffaelle, Accompanied by La Fornarina, Preparing his Pictures for the Decoration of the Loggia  exhibited 1820

Turner revelled in the history, architecture and light of Rome. On his return, he painted this sweeping view from the Vatican. It was Turner’s tribute to Italian Renaissance painter and architect Raphael, which he exhibited on the 300th anniversary of his death. Raphael stands in the foreground with his companion La Fornarina. He gazes at the overhead vaults of the Loggia, painted by him and his students. The drawings and paintings in the centre foreground represent the breadth of Raphael’s talent.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Ancient Rome; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus  exhibited 1839

Turner draws on his observations of Rome and his imagination to depict the city in ancient times. Rising from the mist it appears as a glowing mass of buildings that melts into the distance. Turner overlays this dreamlike cityscape with a story about love and devotion from ancient Italy. Agrippina was married to Roman general, Germanicus. When he was killed, Agrippina carried his ashes back to Rome in an urn. She was met on her journey by crowds of mourners.

Gallery label, October 2023