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    Return to "Turner, P.M." is linked to these Works 3 items
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    Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna - II

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    Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna - II
    Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna - II
    Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna - II
    Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna - II
    Date
    c.1765 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 73.6 x 97.8 cm
    Imperial: 29 x 38 1/2 in.
    Collection
    Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    APx 1979.29
    Wilson Online Reference
    P143
    Description
    The town of Tivoli is seen from the north east across the gorge of the river Aniene (or Anio), with the Roman Campagna and the city of Rome itself in the distance. To the left, on the cliff edge, is a small cluster of ancient buildings. These include the circular Roman Temple of Vesta and the rectangular Temple of the Tiburtine Sibyl.
    Exhibited
    New York 2010 (10)
    Provenance
    John Laporte (1761-1839), London; bt 10 June 1817 by Amabel Yorke, Baroness Lucas of Crudwell, Countess de Grey of Wrest (1750-1833), London and Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, England; by descent to her nephew, Thomas Philip Robinson Weddell (later de Grey), 6th Baron Lucas of Crudwell, 3rd Baron Grantham and 2nd Earl de Grey of Wrest (1781-1859), Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, as View at Albano, near Rome; by descent to his daughter, Anne Florence Weddell de Grey Cowper, Baroness Lucas of Crudwell, Countess Cowper (1806-80), Panshanger, Hertfordshire and Wrest Park, Bedfordshire; by descent to her son, Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper, 8th Baron Lucas of Crudwell, 4th Lord Dingwall, 3rd Baron Butler of Moore Park (1834-1905), Panshanger, Hertfordshire, and Wrest Park, Bedfordshire; by descent to his nephew, Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas of Crudwell, 5th Lord Dingwall (1876-1916), London; by inheritance to his sister, Nan Ino Herbert Cooper, Baroness Lucas of Crudwell, Lady Dingwall, (1880-1958) London; her sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, 26 May 1922 (89 - A View at Albano, near Rome); bt for 160 guineas by Percy Moore Turner, Independent Gallery, 7A Grafton Street, London W.1.; Scott and Fowles, New York; bt by Mrs. Frederick Wallis Hinkle, Cincinnati, late 1920s or early 1930s; Newhouse Galleries, Inc., New York; bt by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, 1979
    Subject
    Tivoli is about 20 kilometres from Rome, on the lower slopes of the Sabine Hills. Its finest ruin, the so-called Temple of Vesta, is a circular building dating from the 1st century BC. Situated dramatically above a precipice and cascade, it has been admired by artists since the 16th century because of its picturesque location and became a famous attraction for Grand Tourists.
    Related Drawings
    D217 Tivoli with the Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl and the Grand Cascade, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    D280/10 Italian Sketchbook - Drawings pp. 10(v) and 11(r): The Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl at Tivoli, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    P45 The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Copy attributed to J.M.W. Turner, c.1798, Tate, London (N05512)
    Critical commentary
    Like the artist seen sketching in this picture, Richard Wilson must have passed many pleasurable hours drawing the dramatic site, with its distinctive temples and extensive view over the Roman Campagna. The area had also figured in the works of Claude Lorrain and Gaspard Dughet, from whose classic landscapes Wilson's composition derives unmistakably - a wedge of land framed by a tree, the hillside view of the town and the vista of the low plain as it extends toward Rome. This painting, a variant of a composition the artist first painted in 1752 (P45), was made after his return to Britain. By introducing the ideal landscape to the next generation, he played a major role in establishing the British school of landscape painters. Even John Constable, who professed no need to go to Italy, was influenced by Wilson and spoke of how his work 'still swims in my brain like a delicious dream.' The young J.M.W. Turner's debt was explicit - many years before he made his own trip to the Roman Campagna, he seems to have copied this painting, though omitting the large tree and figures (c.1798, Tate, London).
    Bibliography
    WGC p. 223, pl. 116b (version 1); Feigen 2010, unpaginated
    More Information
    Until the later C18 the circular temple had been called the Temple of the Sybil because of the site's ancient connection with the Tiburtine Sybil. It was then demonstrated by Giuseppe Vasi and others to have been a vestal temple and the small adjacent church containing some ancient elements was assumed to have been the Temple of Sybil.
    Updated by Compiler
    2019-10-09 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Tivoli with the Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl and the Grand Cascade, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Italian Sketchbook - Drawings pp. 10(v) and 11(r): The Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl at Tivoli, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven

    Versions

    • Ascribed to Wilson, Tivoli: Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - II, Private Collection, France
    • Richard Wilson and Studio Tivoli: The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna - II, Private Collection, North America
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna - II, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee

    Paintings

    • The Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

    Exhibitions

    • New York, Richard L. Feigen & Co., 29 April - 25 June 2010

    Biographies

    • Percy Moore Turner (1905-1952)

    Documents

    • Richard Feigen and Ann Guité, Richard Wilson and the British Arcadia
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