Ancient Italy: The Banishment of Ovid
After
Joseph Mallord William Turner
(London, England, 1775 - 1851)
Mediummezzotint and etching on paper
ClassificationsPrints
DimensionsOverall: Height: 18.4 cm, Width: 24.9 cm
AcquisitionBequeathed in 1946 by Lady Troup.
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG007747
About MeBorn in 1775 at Covent Garden, London, J.M.W. Turner was the son of a barber and wig maker. In 1789 he was admitted as a student at the Royal Academy School and elected a member of the R. A. in 1802.Turner made two trips to Rome during his life, the first in 1819, lasting about five months and a second one in 1828. The brilliance of Mediterranean light and the influence of a master of ideal landscape such as Claude Lorrain, made Italian setting particularly appreciated by Turner.
This etching, a copy after Turner's oil painting made in 1838, depicts the exile of the Latin poet Ovid from Rome. A relevant figure of the Augustian Age, the author of Metamorphosis and Ars Amatoria, Ovid was involved in a scandal with some members of Augustus' family. He was exiled in Tracia and as a result of this experience he wrote a volume called "Tristia" where he regretted his past life and described the magnificence of Rome. Ovid's exile is an uncommon subject for painters, but in Turner's painting it seems a pretext to exhibit the golden brightness of Italian sunshine in the centre of the composition and the picturesque roman ideal architecture, whilst the human figures appear small and dark.
The picture is related to its companion Modern Italy. In both the artist meditates on the passing of the glories of Rome. Turner, Lord Byron and the poet Garry Knight were joining in a debate on the relationship of ancient to modern societies which was probably stimulated by Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88). These two pictures and one other pair Ancient Rome and Modern Rome, are results of this debate.
The original oil on canvas Ancient Italy painted by Turner in 1838 (Groult Collection, Paris), was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830. It was acquired by a friend and one of the major patrons of Turner, Munro of Novar, a wealthy young Scottish laird. In 1842 Murno bought also Modern Italy.
A proposal to buy Ancient Italy for the Louvre in 1894 failed, mainly due to the opposition of conservative artists. The Belgian painter Alfred Stevens claimed that it was a work of Turner's decadence (Magazine of Art, XVII, 1894, pp.36-44). Critics, however, were generally in favour of Turner's later paintings. His fame across Europe was mainly due to artists' patrons such as the collector Groult who was bringing Turner's later style before French artists and the Parisian public.
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