J.M.W. TURNER AND THE ROMANTIC VISION OF THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE Mordechai Omer MCMULLEN MUSEUM OE ART • BOSTON COLLEGE J.M.W. TURNER AND THE ROMANTIC VISION OF THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE Mordechai Omer MCMULLEN MUSEUM OF ART • BOSTON COLLEGE This publication is issued in conjunction with the exhibition j. M. VV'. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bthle, at the Charles S. and Isabella V. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, October 8 to December 15, 1996. The exhibition was organized by the McMullen •Museum of Art, Boston College, Jennifer Grinnell, exhibition coordinator; Mordechai Omcr, guest curator. This publication was supported by Boston College, with a generous contribution from Thomas H. Quinn, class of 1990. Additional supporters of the exhibition and catalogue are: Consulate General of Israel to New England William F. .McLaugblin Atrium .Mall Cierard and Brigitte .Moufflet Copyright © 1996 by the Charles 8. and Isabella V. .McMullen .Vluseum of Art, Boston College Chestnut Hill, M.A, and Mordechai Omer. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 96-077722 ISBN 0-9640 15,T,S-« EMited and copyedited by Jennifer Grinnell and Naomi Rosenberg. Designed by Nieshoff Design Typeset in Sabon Printed by Acme Printing Photographs have been provided courtesy of tbe following: Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, nos. I I (pi. IV), 42 (pi. IX), 53 (pi. XI) Blackburn Museums and .Art Galleries, Lancashire, no. 49 (pi. X) Avraham Hay, Tel-Aviv, nos. 19, 23, 27, 30, 33, 36, 44, 55 Indianapolis Museum of Art, nos. I (pi. I), 9 (pi. Ill) Israel Museum, Jerusalem, nos. 28 (pi. VII), 39 (pi. VIII), 43 Hafia Museum of Art, Israel, no. 78 Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv. Photographer Avraham Hay, nos. 2 - 6, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 26, 29, 32, 35, 40, 46, 48, 50, 54, 56, 58, 60, 61,63, 65, 66, 68, 70 - 75, 77, figs. 1 - 3. ©1996 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., no. 7 (pi. II) National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, no. 75 (pi. XIII) Sotheby's, London and Zurich, no. 16 (pi. VI I Royal Institute of Btitish .Architects, London, nos. 8, 2 1 , 24, 25, 3 1 , 34, 37, 38, 4 1 , 45, 47, 5 1 , 52, 59, 62, 64, 67, 69 Tel-Aviv .Museum of Art, no. 55, 57 (pi. XII) Board of Trustees, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. 13 (pi. V) front cover: NO. 39 J. M. W. Turner ferusalem. Pool of Bethesda 1832-1834 watercolor on paper 1 40 X 200 (lift of Jan Krugier, Geneva, in memory of .Miss .Marguerite Bleuler, Israel .Museum Collection, Jetusalem back cover: NO. 53 J. M. W. Turner The Wilderness of Engcdi and the Convent of Santa Saba 1834-1835 watercolor on paper 1 27 X 203 Private Collection, courtesy of Tbos. Agnew fC Sons, London Contents Messages from the Honorary Patrons of the Exhibition 4 His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law H.R.H. Princess Wijdan AH uf Jordan Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres Director’s Preface 6 Nancy Netzer Acknowledgements 8 Mordechat Omer Color Plates 10 I The Sublimity of Nature: Translating 23 Biblical Allusions into Pictures II Views of the Holy Land: The Perception 40 of Nature as a Step Toward the Sublime III Biblical Allusions in the 128 Illustration of Literary Works Notes 144 Abbreviations 147 Messages from the Honorary Patrons of the Exhibition T he heart of the Holy Land is Jerusalem named hy Isaiah “the holy city” (Isaiah 52:1), sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For the Jew, Jerusalem is the divine dwelling place symbolized in the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple. For the Christian, Jerusalem is the center from which the preaching of the Gospel radiated throughout the world. For the Muslim, Jerusalem is the site of one of Islam’s principal shrines, made holy by the Night Journey of the Prophet. From early times pilgrims have visited the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem, filled with the enthusiasm of the Psalmist: “1 was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem” (Psalms 122:1-2). For those unable to make a pilgrimage, this exquisite Boston College exhibition, /. M. W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bible, will be a profoundly religious experience, bringing within the reach of every viewer the inspiration of the Holy Land. This exhibition will have been a marvelous achievement, if it leads to a greater understanding among people of all faiths, prompting them to pray with the Psalmist for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers” (Psalms 122:7). His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Boston, 1996 N o spot on earth can claim as much religious and historical consciousness as the Holy City of Jerusalem. Being sacred to three monotheistic faiths, it relentlessly and constantly evokes feelings of religious territorialism among believers, albeit mixed with nostalgia to a glorious and controversial past, which all hopelessly aspire to enact sometime in the future. Consequently, every aspect related to Jerusalem has not only been studied, but probed to the point of exhaustion, except that of art. The exhibition J. M. W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Tand and the Bible comes as a relief to all believers from Jerusalem’s heavy legacy. In the paintings’ subdued colors and flight of fantasy, the Holy 4 Land comes across as a land of eternal peace. Even the Biblical calamities portrayed in some art works seem less cruel than our present. Subsequently, one cannot but wonder why the people who cherish Jerusalem so much and, who trace their common ancestry to Abraham, cannot realize that it is time their belief in One God should finally unite them in peace. Much heartbreak can be spared and much more gained if only people can bring themselves to look towards their future instead of their past and present. Hopefully the exhibition and the educational program which accompanies it might give us all a new perspective of the Holy Land that is detached from our inherited and acquired fears and obsessions, and help us in becoming more tolerant towards others as well as ourselves. Her Royal Highness Princess Wijdan Ai.i Amman, 1996 / erusalem is the birthplace of three monotheistic religions, which relate to the same god, and the same father: Abraham. Since all of us are sons of Abraham, should we not try to behave like brothers of a single family? Jerusalem gave the great spirit to the world. It is the undivided city where each and every believer has the right to pray by his own book. From the praying lips to the open skies there must be neither censorship nor intervention. Jerusalem being the capital of Israel must not prevent the existence of tolerance among the holders of different opinions, neither deny the possibility that from Zion came out peace to all nations. The special paintings presented in this exhibition are an attempt to recreate through brushwork the extraordinary and changing lights of the city — partially visible and partially hidden, that caress the ancient buildings. This exhibition is a tribute to the exceptional city, Jerusalem, whose ancestry is still buried under its walls, and where hopes have begun to spread throughout the whole region. Mr. Shimon Peres Tel-Aviv, 1996 5 Director's Preface I t is a great privilege to introduce /. M. W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bible, the most comprehensive exhibition of Turner’s works of the Middle East and the Bible. This important group of paintings, watercolors, engravings and mezzotints, shown for the first time in America, has remained large- ly unknown except to serious students of Turner’s oeuvre. The twenty-six engravings in the exhibition were made to illustrate Finden and Murray’s Landscape Illustrations of the Bible, published in 1836. The engravings, nearly all shown here in the first state, were made after watercolors Turner painted between 1833 and 1835. This exhibition displays the largest number of these topographical watercolors of the Holy Land ever exhibit- ed together, all of which were dispersed during the artist’s lifetime. Turner never traveled to the Middle East but based his watercolors on sketches by other artists and architects who, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, visited the region as an extension of the Grand Tour. The most important source for Turner was the series of sketches of Old and New Testament sites by the English architect Sir Charles Barry (1795 - 1860). We are most pleased to mount the premiere showing of the eighteen architectural sketches by Barry which Turner used. In the exhibition and catalogue, the illustrations of the sites are arranged, also for the first time, accord- ing to the route that most tourists, and probably Sir Charles Barry, followed to the Middle East in the early nineteenth century. This exhibition and catalogue are the results of a successful collaboration between the McMullen and Tel- Aviv museums of art. Professor Mordechai Omer, director of the latter, conceived of this exhibition, selected the works, agreed to lend his prints and wrote the accompanying catalogue. His lifelong passion for these works by Turner galvanized us all. We especially acknowledge supervisor of publications and exhibition coordinator, Jennifer Grinnell, who not only produced and edited the catalogue for an American audience with extraordi- nary discernment, but also located and arranged for all the loans. I can truly say that without her dedication and talent, this exhibition and catalogue would not exist. We are also grateful to Naomi Rosenberg for her thoughtful and careful editing of the text, to Patricia Nieshoff for her elegant design of this book, and to our curator Alston Conley for the inspired design and installation of the exhibition. We are indebted, as well, to other members of the Museum staff for their devotion to this project, Alice Harkins, Melanie Hannon, Marilyn Heskett, Kerry Leonard, Rachel Mayer, Gabriella Palmieri, Jennifer Scuro, and, our ever-efficient administrator, Helen Swartz. Also, Boston College professors, Donald Dietrich, Jeffery 6 Howe, Ruth Langer and John Michalcyzk worked closely with me to organize the series of symposia and films which accompany the exhibition, and which explore the meaning of the Middle East to the three faith groups. I take further pleasure in acknowledging the help of Dan Holin, former public affairs officer of the Israeli con- sulate in Boston, who introduced me to Mordechai Omer and supported and helped guide this long project from beginning to end. Others at the Israeli consulate, especially the Consul General Dan Kyram, and the con- sul Ofra Fahri, lent the expertise of their offices, as well. I also extend special thanks to the British Consul General in Boston, James Poston. No exhibition would exist without the generosity of its lenders and we extend special thanks to those who assisted this one in various ways: William Agnew, Stephanie Belt, Nicolai Cikovsky, Timothy Clifford, Benjamin Doller, Eleanor Gawne, Terry Harley-Wilson, Avraham Hay, Georges Heussi, Amalyah Keshet, Christopher Kingzett, Teddy Kollek, Susan Eambert, Daphna Eapidot, Jill Lever, Loveday Manners-Price, Christopher Mendez, Gwyn Miles, Michael Millward, Judith Paisner, Cornelia Pallavicini, Georgina Pelham, Martin Peretz, Meira Perry-Lehmann, Maria de Peverelli-Luschi, Earl A. Powell III, Hasia Rimon, Katherine Ross, Alan Shestack, Maggie Sims, Janice Slater, Bret Waller, Henry Wemyss, James Wilson and Andrew Wyld. We especially thank the anonymous private lenders for generously agreeing to entrust their works to this exhibition. J. M. W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bible represents a commitment of considerable resources. Thus, we are grateful to the administration of Boston College, especially William Leahy, S. J., J. Donald Monan, S. J., Margaret Dwyer, William Neenan S. J., Francis Campanella, J. Robert Barth, S.J., and Richard Spinello. The McMullen Museum acknowledges with warm gratitude the essential and generous patronage by Thomas H. Quinn, class of 1990, who has underwritten partial cost of the catalogue. We also extend thanks to other supporters of the exhibition: the Friends of the Boston College Museum of Art, chaired by Nancy and John Joyce, William E. McLaughlin, Gerard and Brigitte xVloufflet, and the Atrium Mall at Chestnut Hill. Finally, in addition to its scholarly mission, the exhibition aims to foster a spirit of ecumenism and positive dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews. To this end, we are especially grateful to those who have served as the exhibition’s honorary patrons from its inception. Their Royal Highnesses Prince Ali bin Nayef and Princess Wijdan Ali of Jordan, Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel, and His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law, Archbishop of Boston. It is our hope that this exhibition and its educational programs will make a lasting contribution to the ecumenical culture and society of New England. Nancy Netzer 7 Acknowledgements T he genesis of this exhibition and catalogue J. M. W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bihle, and Chapter One in particular, CKCurred while I was studying biblical iconography in English Romantic art for my doctoral thesis at the University of East Anglia in the mid-1970s. I am chiefly indebted to my dissertation supervisor, John Gage, who watched over these studies with sympathetic criticism from their beginnings. The second chapter of the catalogue resulted from my research for the Turner and the Bihle exhibition, which was mounted, for the first time, at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1979, and then at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in 1981. The watercolors and prints appearing in the third chapter were first explored in the exhibition Turner and the Poets, commissioned by the Greater Eondon Council in 1975, and for which I served as curator. I am very grateful to the numerous museums and private collectors who, in the past, and more recently, have allowed me to study the works in their collections, provided documentation and photographs, and grant- ed permission to reproduce the illustrations. All were ultimately instrumental, throughout the years, toward the assemblage of this exhibition. I am grateful to them all. I would especially like to acknowledge the assistance of Kenneth Garlick, John Harris, John Jacob, Evelyn Joll, Michael Kauffmann, Hugh Leggatt, Jill Lever, Meira Perry-Lehmann, D. W. Posnett, Lindsey Stainton, Martin Weyl, Andrew Wilton and Andrew Wyld. Avraham Hay took great pains in photographing, as they appear today, many of the sites painted by Turner. I am most thankful to him for these excellent photographs which allow exciting comparisons between Barry’s careful typography. Turner’s romantic adaptations, and the present state of the landscape and buildings which, in some cases, have changed very little. Last, and most especially, I thank Prof. Nancy Netzer, Director of the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, for inviting me to serve as curator for this exhibition, as well as for her tireless endeavors to enrich and expand its horizons. I would like to extend my thanks as well to the entire staff of the McMullen Museum of Art for their dedication to the successful completion of this exhibition, and especially Jennifer Grinnell who edited and supervised the publication of the catalogue, and organized the exhibition. Mordechai Omer Lenders to the Exhibition Blackburn Museums and Art Galleries, Lancashire Hafia Museum of Art Indianapolis Museum of Art Israel Museum, Jerusalem National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh Royal Institute of British Architects, London Tel- Aviv Museum of Art Victoria and Albert Museum, London Private Collections Note to the Reader: The works in the catalogue are arranged to correspond to the exhibition’s three main sections: the imaginary depictions of the Bible, the topographical landscapes of the Holy Land and the Bible, and the poetical visions from Milton and Thomas Campbell. The second, the topographical landscapes, are organized according to the most popular route which pilgrims followed to the Middle East in the early nineteenth century. Along the route, the works of each site are reproduced in chronological order. Numbered images and plates in this book are works in the exhibition. Additional images are designated as “figures.” .Measurements are given in millimeters, height preceding width. Measurements for engravings, etchings and drawings refer to the size of the plate or pencil mark, or, if not visible, the image. Abbreviated references are listed in full at the back of the catalogue. 9 PLATE 1 (NO. i) j. w Turner The Fifth Plague of Egypt 1800 oil on canvas 1240 X 1830 Indianapolis Museum of Art, Anonymous Gift in memory of Evan F. Lilly, acc. no. 55.24 10 PLATE II (NO. 7) ). M. W. Turner The Evening of the Deluge 1843 oil on canvas 760 X 760 Timken Collection, National (iallery of Art, Washington, acc. no. 1960.6.40 1 1 PLATE III (NO. 9) J. M. W. Turner Egypt with the view of the Pyramids of Ghizah 1832-1843 watercolor on paper 137 X 210 Indianapolis Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Dr. and .Mrs. Hugo O. Pantzer, acc. no. 72.185 12 PLATE IV (no. I i) |. M. W. Turner The Red Sea and Suez 1834-1835 watercolor on paper 140 X 2.03 Private Collection 13 PLATE V (NO. 13) J. M. W. Turner Babylon 1834 watercolor on paper 1 40 X zoo Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. no. 98Z- 1 900 14 PLATE VI (no. r6) |. M. W. Turner Nineveh, Moiisoiil on the Tigris 1834 watercolor on paper 140 X ’02 Private Collection 15 PLATE VII (NO. i8) ). M. W. Turner jerusalem from the Mount of Olives 1834 watercolor on paper I ii X 203 Gift of Mr. Alan Flacks, in honor of .Meir Meyer, The Israel Museum Collection, Jerusalem 16 PLATE VIII (NO. 39) J. \ 1 . W. Turner jerusalcm. Pool of Bcthesdj 1832-1834 watercolor on paper 140 X 200 Gift of Jan Kriigier, (leneva, in memory of .Miss •Marguerite Bleuler, The Israel .Museum Collection, Jerusalem 17 PLATE IX (NO. 4’) J. M. W. Turner Jenisaleni from the Latin Convent 1833 watercolor on paper 140 X 200 Private Collection 18 ri.ATE X (no. 49) J. M. W. Turner Ramab with the Building Cidled Rachel's Tomb 1834 watercolor on paper 1 40 X 197 Blackburn Museums and Art Galleries 19 PLAii- XI (NO. 53) j. M. w. Turner The Wilderness of Kngedi and the Convent of Santa Saha I 834- 1 S3 5 watercolor on paper 1 17 X 203 Private Cioliection 20 PLATE XII (no. 57) J. M. W. Turner The Dead Sea, Jericho and the Month of the Jordan 1834 watercolor on paper 127 X 202 Private Collection 21 PLATE XIII (no. 76) J. M. W. Turner Sinai’s Thunder 1835 watercolor Z35 X 184 Collection of the National Gallery of Scotland, Mrs. M.D. Fergusson Bequest, 1988 22 The Sublimity of Nature CHAPTER ONE The Sublimity of Nature: Translating Biblical Allusions into Pictures T hroughout his career, particularly upon each new phase, J. M. W. Turner repeatedly plumbed the Holy Scriptures. His biblical illustrations fall into two distinct categories: the “pure” landscape, closely dependent upon an outdoor sketch of a particular view, and the quasi-symbolic, even emblematic, visionary landscape, usually compiled from several tentative stu- dio sketches and often inspired by traditional iconography and literary sources. These two aspects of Turner, his faithful render- ing of natural scenes and his romantic dramatization of remote events, may appear to be diametrically opposed, but, in fact, they are the interrelated poles of a flexible personality that wishes to project nature from various perspectives. To study either category of biblical landscape, we may now refer to the many sketchbooks that Turner left behind. His high- ly dramatized vision of the Bible derives both from his observa- tions of nature (stormy seascapes or architectural ruins), and from his familiarity with the works of other artists, such as Raphael, Poussin and Rembrandt, who also dealt with these subjects. Eurthermore, after Turner first visited the Louvre in the early autumn of 1802, his work bifurcated into two forms: the histori- cal and the sublime. With the first of his three earliest “historical pictures,”' he acquired “new character in his profession.”' Between 1800 and 1802, Turner submitted to the Royal Academy Exhibition one example each year of his historical religious works, which “were then regarded as the highest branch of the painter’s art, because they addressed what were supposed to be the noblest faculties of the mind.”' In addition to their titles. The Fifth Plague of Egypt (no. 1, pi. 1), The Army of the Medes Destroyed in the Desert, and The Tenth Plague of Egypt, Turner cited the original biblical sources for their themes. All the works related to catastrophic events recorded in the Old Testament, “wherein the laws of Nature were superseded by the wrath of Nature’s God. The effect of the whole excites pity and terror in a high degree and is truly sublime.”^ Indeed, this group of large paintings, in which small and helpless figures populate a wide dis- tant landscape before the fury of God’s creation, points to the eighteenth-century aesthetic of the sublime, and the concept of fear as a pleasurable experience. As Edmund Burke says in his study on the origin of ideas of the sublime, “whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime, that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”' 2-3 Chapter t) n e These paintings may also share a literary source other than the Bible. As Ann Livermore points out in her studies of Turner and poetry, the poet James Thompson (1700-1748) mentions the plagues of Egypt, (as well as the prophet Jeremiah) in lines and explanatory notes to his poetry, among which The Seasons espe- cially influenced Turner’s primary sources. Furthermore, Turner was infatuated with the style of land- scape painter Richard Wilson (1713 - 1782), who not only hroLight historical and ideal landscapes to his attention, hut also impelled him to become more familiar with the work of Nicholas Poussin (1594 - 1665). As early as 1798, Turner copied Poussin’s Exposure of Moses and Landscape with a Snake, whose lesson clearly shows in the lingering planar organization of the masses of architecture in The Fifth Plague of F.gypt (no. 1, pi. I), and, to a greater degree, in The Tenth Plague of Egypt. Referring to the latter painting, Jerrold Ziff says, “Even the more suhlime details, for e.xample, the bending trees, gesticulating figures and lightning flash in the upper left corner, recall Poussin.” The impressions from nature that Turner inserted into the grander style of the old masters are, collectively, another essen- tial component of his grand imaginative biblical inventions. A storm that Turner witnessed amid the mountains of North Wales, in Autumn 1799, will show up later as thunder and hail in, for example, the Seventh Plague of Egypt. In some of the sketchbooks (e.g. The Dolhadern Sketchbook) he juxtaposes his realistic studies of nature with studies from historical land- scapes of the old masters. The result is a lofty new conception of landscape. In July 1802, Turner left London for the Continent. During his four-month tour, he made over four-hundred sketches. In Paris, Turner apparently spent most of his time at the Louvre, studying and analyzing the old masters. * Although he carefully examined the work of the great Italian, French, Dutch and Flemish masters, he particularly strove to understand the means and methods by which to achieve artistic expression. Above all. Turner tried to understand how each subject pro- voked another use of “historical coloring.” The long note he attached to the copy of Titian’s Entombment in the Studies in the Louvre Sketchbook explains: The Entombment may be ranked among the first of Titian’s pictures as to color and pathos of effect for by casting a brilliant light on the Holy Mother and Martha and the first figure of Joseph (it seems that the figure of Nicodemus was mistaken for Joseph), the Body has a sepulchral effect. The expression of Joseph is fine as to the care he is undertaking, but without grandeur. His fig- ure, which is clothed in striped drapery conveys the idea of silent distress, the one in vermilion attention, while the agony of Mary and the solicitude of Martha to prevent her grief and view of the dead body, with her own anguish by seeing, are admirably described; and though on the first view they appear but collateral figures, yet the whole is dependent upon them; they are the breadth and the expression of the picture. Mary is in blue which partakes of crimson tone, and hy it unites with the bluer sky. Martha is in striped yellow and some streaks of red, which thus unites with the warm stream of light in the sky. Thus the Breadth is made by the three primitive col- ors breaking each other, and are connected by the figure in vermilion to the one in crimson striped drapery, which balances all the breadth of the left of the picture by its brilliancy. Thus the body of Jesus has the look of death without the affected leaden color often resorted unto... The drapery of the Body is the highest light or more properly the first that strikes the eye. Of great use it is, gives color to the dead body and breadth to the center. More than half the pictures that Turner studied in the Louvre portray biblical subjects, and, as we shall see, the bibli- cal paintings that follow that first visit to Paris reflect his dili- gent research. The “simplicity” of the parts,' “the richness of color and the brilliancy in effect” of the old masters’ works showed him how to transform empirical observations of nature into a non-empirical supernatural content whose biblical-sym- bolical meaning is clear. Analyzing the works of Titian, Poussin, Rembrandt and Domenichino enhanced his responsiveness to - . • . 19 the “shades of meaning and feeling” that replaced his tradi- tional mechanical realization, which demanded an equal finish- ing of all objects in the painting. Turner was in his twenties when he was first drawn to bib- lical subjects. Among the early studies that remain in his sketch- books as unrealized intentions. Exodus 7: 20, for example, describes the first plague to fall upon Egypt: “And Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters of the river, in full view of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water of the river were changed into blood.” The Calais Pier Sketchbook contains two studies, spread over two large, gray pages that clearly portray this event. The Subli.mity of Nature The artist’s handwriting identifies them as The water turn’d to Blood. The subjects of other early historical studies in Turner’s bequest are more difficult to classify, but may belong to the same series of biblical ideas. Eor example, A.J. Einberg identifies the drawing on a rough scrap of paper as “possibly one of the - 21 Plagues of Egypt.” More recently, A. Wilton determined the same sketch to be The Egyptian Host in the Red Sea. Some of Turner’s early small oils on paper, like A Wild Landscape, with Figures at Sunset, are also exercises in preparation for larger undertakings. The dramatic lighting of the sky and the wide- open imagined landscape recall, once again. The Fifth Plague of Egypt (no. 1, pi. I); the two figures in the foreground suggest the parable of the Good Samaritan, “for one, clothed, tends the other, who lies naked on the ground.” About 1810, Turner was further occupied with biblical sub- jects that relate to larger themes, most of which, however, he merely mentions by title in his sketchbook. In the Studies for Pictures; Isleworth Sketchbook he suggests three scenes in the life of the patriarch Jacob: Jacob and Esau, Jacob and Rachel and Laban Searching for his Images.'^ 5 Chapter One The Fifth Plague of Egypt (1800) when Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent forth hail and peals of thunder. Lightning flashed toward the earth, and the Lord rained down hail upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 9: 23 Turner included both the title and quotation from Exodus in the exhibition catalogue when he displayed The Fifth Plague of Egypt (no. I, pi. I) at the Royal Academy in 1800. The plague that the painting depicts, however, is the seventh plague, that of hail and fire, and not the fifth, which is that of pestilence. Visible in the lower right corner is Moses who, only during the seventh plague (which Turner quotes), stretches toward heaven immedi- ately before the onslaught of the hail and fire that destroyed the animals of Egypt. The Fifth Plague of Egypt was Turner’s first treatment of an Old Testament scene, as well as his first painting in the Grand Manner influenced by two of the painters he most admired, Welsh landscape painter Richard Wilson (1^14 - 1782) and Erench painter Nicholas Poussin (1594 - 1665). Turner may also have referred to an etching by Italian engraver and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi's (c. 1720 - 1778), The Pyramid of Cains Cestus from the series Views of Rome (1755), particularly as he drew the pyramid. Turner’s sketchbooks contain several studies for this picture. A Speaking Man (fig. 1) in the Studies for Pictures Sketchbook may be the preliminary drawing for the figure of Moses; a study (fig. 2) from the Dolhardarn Sketchbook may contain the pre- liminary sketches for the dead horse and other figures. Turner used landscape as an open stage for biblical scenes of death and destruction at several stages of his career. Two years after the completion of The Fifth Plague of Egypt, Turner exhib- ited another painting, identifying it as The Tenth Plague of F.gypt, represented in this exhibition by an engraving (no. 4) and included in the Fiber Studiorum. Plate i, page 10 26 The Subiimitv of Nature |. M. W. Turner /\ Speaking iWjn iStiidv of Moses jor The hifth Plague of Egypt) Studies for I’icturcs SI,r:r-;d by W'illiani Say 1 ;)lli.iii:i .if ei i ; . 1 , .! A\ !' 33 Chapter One Christ and the Woman of Samaria Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from bis journey, sat down there at the well: and it was about noon! A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' John 4: 6 - 7 Christ and the Woman of Samaria (1819) was among the last of the seventy-one plates Turner published for the Liber Studioriim, which he began in 1807 and ended in 1819. Turner’s artistic representation adheres exactly to the biblical text and specifically John 4. In the painting he describes a panoramic view of the landscape across the greater part of the canvas, and, in adherence to the custom of the late Renaissance, he shows Christ sitting under a shady tree and surrounded by classical ruins. In the engraving (no. 5), however, we see a sitting Christ on the right, his finger pointing heavenward, speaking to a rural woman who holds a jug. In the distance, two figures approach the foreground. Returning from town, the disciples “were amazed that he [Jesus] was talking with a woman, but still no one said, ‘What are you looking for?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?”’ (John 4: 27). On the left. Turner arranges the build- ings to show the periphery of the Samarian town of Sychar. The geometric structure, the classical arches, and the interaction between vertical and horizontal lines recall quite strikingly the style of Poussin. His Abandonment of Moses, which Turner copied as early as 1798, shows similar architectural masses. The curved trees framing the wide-open sky of the present work could have been taken from Poussin’s Landscape with Snake. Comparing the preceding pen-sepia drawing and the perfect etching (no. 5), we see that the drawing was traced in reverse on the copper plate, and that Turner executed the etching himself. Although the etching is a nearly exact copy of the drawing, we, nevertheless observe what Finberg calls “a noticeable brighten- ing up of all objects.” Finberg attributes [Tjhe change ... entirely ... to the execution. The con- tour line of the main object has lost its meaningless course. It is now backed by an intention. Its movement builds up the drawing everywhere as a whole, while it makes the parts more clear. The compelling nature of the whole can be perceived in every detail ... In the drawing, the scene was a painstakingly joined incom- plete work of art, a collection of details became a total amount; in the etching, the subject as a whole is a real, living thing, which turns the artist’s hand and all details into a relationship with itself. 34 The Sublimity of Nature 5 |. M. \X’ Turner ‘. '.brisl ami the Woman of Santana ‘ Liber Stiidionttn) 1819 etching and mezzotint, printed in brown ink i I o X ’90 engraved by Samuel Reynolds (Collection Ilf Mordechai (bner, Tcl-Aviv 35 Chapter One The Deluge Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings/ Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove! From under heav'n...the thick’n'd sky/ Like a dark ceiling stood; down riishd the rain/ Impetuous, and continu'd till the earth/ No more was seen... Paradise Lost Book XI: 738 - 745 This mezzotint, entitled The Deluge (no. 6 ), belongs to the unpublished Liher Studiorum series. It is after the large oil painting of the same name exhibited in Turner’s Gallery (1805) and at the Royal Academy (1813). Turner used works of poetry and prose as sources of inspi- ration for The Deluge, including Milton’s Paradise Lost, The 39 Seasons by James Thomson (1700 - IMS) , and the Bible. However, Turner preferred Milton’s representation of the bihle story to either Thomson or the Bible itself, the most obvious explanation for which is his desire to recast the story of the Deluge in terms more readily acceptable to the intellectual and emotional sensibilities of his time. If, in the list of literary sources, the Bihle was, among most of the Romantic artists, 40 “yet first,” Milton’s Paradise Lost was the greatest poetical model and inspiration through which they perceived the bibli- cal text, and against which they challenged their own work.^' The story of the Deluge is a major episode in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton writes that the Archangel Michael, sent in a vision to Adam and Eve to reveal God’s plans for the future of mankind, unfolds before Adam, as well as the reader, the whole “scheme of salvation,” as implied in Christian dogma. God granted the vision to Adam and Eve after their Fall as an acknowledgment of their repentance and prayer, the episode with which Milton closes Book X. The vision opens with the death of Abel and concludes with the Last Judgment — a natur- al finale to a book that constructs the entire spiritual history of mankind on a foundation of Christian faith. In his work The Seasons, the Romantic poet James Thomson, Turner’s other poetical source, uses the Deluge as a dominant image as well, imparting moral implications through descriptions of nature’s contradictory beauty and destruction. Along with Campbell, Thomson’s poetry was a crucial influence on the young Turner, especially in the artistic formulation of his imagery of nature. From their works, he also derived a poetical consciousness firmly rooted in the ideals of liberty and freedom, following the turbulent era of the American and French Revolutions. His inclination to incorporate concepts from the works of contemporary poets into his own paintings calls attention to the appearance of the male black figure in the foreground of The 36 Deluge. In this Liher Studiorum mezzotint (no. 6), Turner chose to portray the violent climax of the storm. A tremendous wave threatens to crush a huddled group of victims on a hill. Despite the terror of the scene, the figure of the black man makes a coura- geous effort to support an unconscious woman in the raging tor- rents. Undoubtedly, Turner means to describe him as a heroic figure, although he is an element without a biblical reference in the Deluge story. Bearing in mind the influence of contemporary poetry on Turner, it is possible to interpret this figure as a com- ment on the vices of the nineteenth-century society within the framework of the biblical paradigm. This interpretation would seem to be supported by Turner’s belief that the slave-trade represented most clearly the evil and corruption of humanity. At the time of his artistic activity. Turner was surrounded by calls for the abolition of slavery, the end of The SuBEiMirv of Nature colonial oppression in Africa and India, and for Huropean nation- al liberations. In 1840, his painting Shivers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying — Typhon Coming On demonstrated the height of his indignation against the inhumanity of the slave- trade, by depicting a well-known incident on the ship Zong that had captured public attention in 1783. Seen in this light. The Deluge could be an earlier commentary on slavery as an emblem of social injustice and imbalance. Just as the biblical Deluge cleansed the earth of its corruption, allowing the chosen sons of God to regenerate or restore order. Turner would appear to say that nineteenth-century society deserves to he punished for its grievous abuses of humanity and freedom. Although Turner ren- ders the figure of the black man as heroic in The Deluge, he also makes a reference to the equality of all the struggling figures, all doomed to he vanquished together by God’s wrath. 37 Chapter One j. M. W. Turner The Deluge (Liber Stitdioriou |iinpul-)lished|) 1828 etching and mezzi>tint I 80 X 25s) engraved by |. P. Quilley (..ollection of Mordechai Omer. Tel-Aviv 38 The Sublimity of Nature The Evening of the Deluge The morn put forth her sign of woe unheeded/ but disobedience slept; the dark 'ning Deluge/closed around/ And the last token came: the giant framework/floated/ The roused birds forsook their nightly shelters/screaming/ And the beasts waded to the ark. J. M.W. TURNER, Fallacies of FI ope'' The painting The Evening of the Deluge (no. 7, pi. 11) is proba- bly an earlier version of Shade and Darkness - The Evening of the Deluge, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843. Now, as part of Turner’s Bequest, the later rendition hangs in the Tate Gallery (London) with its companion piece Eight and Colour (Geothe’s Theory - The Morning After the Deluge - Moses Writi?jg the Book of Genesis. Together, the paintings depict the contrast between the biblical events that occurred before and after the Deluge. In the Deluge pair. Turner raises to a sublime level, once again, the opposing attitudes that ran parallel throughout his life. The portent of The Evening of the Deluge reflects his pessimistic belief that humanity was doomed by its inner weakness; The Morning After the Deluge reaffirms, with equal conviction, his belief in man’s ability to be reborn through the creative process. Turner’s observations of nature are recognizable as records not only of an inwardly symbolic scene, but also of an outward experience that left its impression on the artist. In the years before exhibiting the Deluge pair. Turner exhibited a seascape. that was no less extreme in its overall composition and was imbued with the same powerful freedom. He entitled it Snow- Storm - Steam Boat off a Flarhour's Mouth making Signals in Shallow water, and going by the Lead. The Author was in this Storm on the Night the Ariel left Harwich (1842). “1 wished,” explained Turner to Rev. Mr. Kingsley, “to show what such a scene was like. I got the sailors to lash me to the mast to observe it; 1 was lashed for four hours, and I did not expect to escape, but I felt bound to record it if I did.” Just as Turner used his obser- vations of shipwrecks and storms in the Deluge pair, so does he use his experiences with nature in The Evening of the Deluge; but, at this advanced stage of his life, the relationship between his observations and the process of applying them to the canvas becomes much more abstract and metaphysical. These late works evidence characteristics similar to those Hazlitt discusses in the critical article “Pictures of Nothing and Very Like” (1816). He describes Turner’s work as “representations not properly of the objects of nature as of the medium through which they 45 were seen Plate ii, page i i 39 Chapter Two CHAPTER TWO Views of the Holy Land: The Perception oe Nature as a Step Towards the Sublime “ when Painting, art toils after truth in vain. ” J. M.W. TURNER T urner had already collaborated with William Finden, his brother, Edward Francis Finden, and John Murray on a large series of designs for Byron’s Life and Works when he accepted their commission for Landscape Illustrations of the Bihle. These works, first issued in parts, were compiled into two volumes and published, in 1836 as The Bihlical Keepsake or Landscape, illustrations of the most remarkable places men- tioned in the Holy Scriptures. The same publisher, John Murray, reissued the set under the title Landscape Illustrations of the Bihle consisting of views of the most remarkable places men- tioned in the Old and New Testament from original sketches taken on the spot. As the introduction explains, “While other works of comparatively small value have employed the pencils of the first artists, and have received every sort of embellishment, little, comparatively, has been done towards illustrating the most important of all books — the Holy Scriptures. To supply deficien- cy is the design of the present collection of Landscape Illustrations, in which are exhibited. ..places mentioned in the Bible, as they actually e.xist, and very few of which have hitherto been delineated.” Murray and the Finden brothers knew well that contempo- raneous guidebooks and publications of the “wanderings” and “annual tours” that flourished in the nineteenth century neglect- ed the Holy Land. In the urbane, Augustan eighteenth century, the European Grand Tour ended in Italy, where travelers satisfied 4 their cravings for classical art and literature. As the turn of the century drew near, however, the changing of times and of pas- sions drove travelers to other Mediterranean ports, to the Holy Land and the Middle East. Thus, guidebook publishers, too, had to extend their horizons. “If Troy and Thebes: If Athens and Rome are visited with classic enthusiasm,” the publishers point out in their introduction to Finden’s Bible, “how much more worthy of awakening the strongest emotions in the mind of a Christian must be the country whose history as far transcends in interest that of every other as its literature (if we may apply that term to the divine volume) excels in sublimity all the ethics, and philosophy, and poetry and eloquence of the heathen world.” Never having visited the Holy Land or any Middle Eastern country, the illustrators who brought the biblical landscapes up to date drew from the extensive archive of research accumulated on the spot by more venturesome travelers, such as the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795 - 1860). Indeed, the final work provided the reader with the latest views from the field and the most recent 40 information available. To capture a precise view of a place as remote as Nineveh, for example. Turner consulted a sketch by Claudius James Rich that was published in 1836 (no. 15) in the book Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh, with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad, and an Account of a visit to Shirauz and Persepolis. In addition, pious pilgrims, such as the Reverend Robert Master or Reverend F. Arundell, army officers such as Major Felix or Captain Fitzmaurice, who served in the area, and archi- 9 tects such as C. R. Cockerell, a renowned classical archaeologist, augmented the information that professional travelers provided. Sir Charles Barry drew many such sketches during his compre- hensive Grand Tour of 1817 - 1820. At the age of twenty-two, Barry traveled from England, planning to tour France and Italy alone, and then to visit Greece and Turkey with Charles Eastlake and W. Kinnaird, who were collecting material for a supplemen- tary volume of The Antiquity of Athens. In August 1818, while preparing to return home from Athens, he met David Baillie. An archaeological traveler from Cambridge, Baillie offered to take Barry to Egypt, the Holy Land and Syria, and to pay him two- hundred pounds sterling a year for his drawings of the architec- ture and scenery they encountered. Although Baillie was to retain all original sketches made on the spot, Barry made copies for himself, which later became the Linden brothers’ primary source for their Landscape Illustrations of the Bible. The publishers selected twenty-five views from Barry’s large collection to be added to seventy-five sketches taken by nearly thirty other trav- elers. Eleven more London artists elaborated the on-site sketches for the final engravings. Ruskin describes the process by which the sketches were dis- tributed. “Turner told me,” mentions Ruskin in the notes to his collection, “that he and Callcott had a certain number of Bible sketches to realize between them: they agreed to pick them alter- ViEws OF THE Holy Land nately, drawing lots for first choice. Callcott won the choice and selected at once a sketch of Ararat; the sketch of the Pools of Solomon [no. 47] was left to the last, and Turner said he kept it on his breakfast table for a month before he could make up his mind how to treat it.” Whenever he could. Turner chose those sketches that presented open panoramas. Moreover, of the twen- ty-six designs he prepared for Linden’s Bible, fourteen were after Sir Charles Barry. He picked six of Barry’s sketches of Jerusalem: Mount Moriah (no. 31); Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives; Jerusalem with the Walls; Jerusalem, Pool of Bethesda (no. 37, 38); Valley of the Brook of Kidron (no. 34); Jerusalem from the Latin Convent (no. 41). Turner passed over the more architec- tural sketches, those portraying particular buildings, such as the House of the Governor of Jerusalem and The Exterior View of the Holy Sepulchre (ultimately drawn by Roberts and C. Stanfield, respectively). As mentioned earlier. Turner’s identification with Scriptural subjects predated his interest in the topographical setting of the Holy Land. Long before becoming familiar with any on-the-spot records, like Barry’s sketch of the Pyramids of Ghizah (no. 8), Turner had completed his own imaginative views of The Fifth 12 Plague of F.gypt (1800) (no. 2).' Similarly, the landscapes in paintings like The Destruction of Sodom (1805) or Rizpah Watching the Bodies of her Sons (c. 1808)'^ were largely illusory. As Ruskin had pointed out earlier, “There is nothing particular- ly indicative of Palestine in the Barley Harvest of Rizpah, not in those round and awful trees; only the solemnity of the south in 14 the lifting of the near burning moon.” In the early 1830s, when Turner was once again occupied with biblical subjects, he depicted events that took place in Jerusalem: Pilate Washing his Hands (1830)'' and the unfinished Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple (c. 1832).' In a third biblical work, he imagines Babylon, showing Shadrach, Meshech I Chapter Two and Ahednego in the Burning Fiery Furtiace (1832). Groups of figures dominate this series of paintings; their backgrounds are limited to a few abstract hints of architectural interiors. Furthermore, his technique in these paintings differs completely from that of the landscape paintings of those years. John Gage suggests that “Turner in his maturity was still concerned to rise I to the solemnity of Rembrandt’s religious [paintings].” The landscapes, which became more and more abstract — and, thus, more and more ambiguous — succumbed to his renewed interest in figures, which drew their pathos and playful commentary from an essentially Baroque symbolic imagery. An enthusiastic critic wrote regarding Pilate Washing his Hands, |T]he grandeur of idea, the power of invention, the awfully sublime effect on the mind, cannot receive too much praise. The more chaotic mass, the infuriated multitude that shouted ‘Let him be crucified!’ like an agitated sea undulates before us; we all but hear the Babel-like din of many voices; and by the distance at which is seen the figure of Pilate, with expanded arms, how admirably is given the idea of space. Like Rembrandt, by the mere power of light and shade, and harmonious coloring. Turner can rouse the sublimest reeling of our mind...' The quality of Turner’s large, crowded biblical compositions reached its zenith when the artist accepted Edward and William Linden’s commission for the Bible series in 1833. The bond Turner forged between the Scriptures and his observations of nature provided an incentive for what Ruskin would later define as the “best works in his latest manner.”^' His dependence on the sketches of minor artists notwithstanding. Turner, now in his late fifties and professionally established, eagerly accepted the Finden assignment. He had already fulfilled commissions for a large series of watercolors for engravings based on sketches by other artists, including eighteen completed between 1818 and 1820, after J. Hakewill’s camera-obscura pencil sketches for Picturesque Tour In Italy. While working on Finden’s Bible, he also drew many second-hand views of Greece and the Middle East for Byron's Life and Works. He probed others’ works less for their topographical precision than for an independently metaphorical role the landscape might assume. He used the pro- vided sketch to stimulate his interrelated references, which com- bined his own memory and experience with the sources of other artists. Turner’s aim, therefore, was dictated by that special and comple.x parrying between fact and “fiction,” between the in prasentia and the in absentia. What Turner added to the on-the-spot sketches was his knowledge of nature — nature as he had experienced and observed it. “Of one thing I am certain,” proclaimed Ruskin, “Turner never drew anything that could be seen without having seen it. That is to say, though he would draw Jerusalem from someone else’s sketch, it would be, nevertheless, entirely from his 24 own experience of ruined walls.” Applying his personal biblical associations to his interpretations of the other artists’ sketches. Turner would weave into his own pictorial language the memo- ry-impressions of many years’ study. Some of the landscapes manifest a more literary iconogra- phy. For example, in the drawing of Bethlehem (no. 46), Turner introduces a star above the Church of a Nativity, and in the lower left corner of the drawing of Mount Sinai (no. 20), he shows the tables of the Covenant. To add meaning to an on-site sketch, discussing the depiction of ritual, he told the Reverend William Kingsley, “that the publishers thought he [Turner] was mad, and required him to put nothing into the drawings beyond what might actually be there; but he had in his hand the sketch of Rachel’s Tomb, and asked whether he might put wolves into it. He said to me perhaps you have found wolves in others.’ He also said he had leave to do what he liked with the encampment in Sinai, and that he made it and the Lebanon to represent the Law and the Gospel.” Lebanon (no. 63) and Sinai are from sketches by Sir Charles Barry (no. 62) and Gaily Knight, respectively. Turner translated both according to his poetic vision. Ruskin, who donated Lebanon to Oxford, writes that Turner [T]ook the Sinai and Lebanon to show the opposite influences of the Law and the Gospel. The rock of Moses is shown in the burning of the desert among the fallen stones, forked lightning cleaving the blue mist which veils the summit of Sinai. Armed Arabs pause at the foot of the rock. No human habitation is seen, nor any herb or tree, nor any brook, and the lighting strikes without rain. Over the Mount Lebanon an intensely soft gray-blue sky is melting into dewy rain. Every ravine is filled, every promontory crowned, by tenderest foliage, golden in slanting sunshine. The white convent nestles into the hollow of the rock; and a little brook runs under the shadow of the nearer trees, beside which two monks sit reading.^*^ Ruskin further explains Turner’s addition (no. 66) of a group of tentmakers to the foreground of Cockerell’s sketch of Corinth as a biblical reference to St. Paul’s trade. At the same time, Ruskin cannot deny that these figures settle Turner’s composi- tion: “You will dislike them at first, but if they were not here, you would have felt the white houses a painful interruption to the Acropolis — as if they are a reposeful space of light. The square oar in front is to repeat and conquer their squareness; the little triangular flag, to join them with the Acropolis slopes, and their divided masses to echo its duplicity.” Views of the Holy Land Certainly iconography influenced Turner, but wbat motivat- ed him most as he adapted the works of others were the natural effects he retained in his memory and imagination. His deft use of light, modified by the circumstances of hour, weather and objects, enriches and intensifies his watercolors in vivid contrasts 29 to the source sketches. If Turner gives us Corinth (no. 66), hot and cloudless at midday, he then evokes the Pools of Solomon (no. 48), much later, nearing sunset, under tumultuous spreads of illuminated clouds. The direction of light also changes complete- ly in these two watercolors. In Corinth, it is partly lateral and originates behind the spectator; in the Pools of Solomon, sunlight appears from above and focuses on the front. The effect of light changes completely in The Wilderness of Engedi (no. 18) and Assos (no. 70), for which Turner captures the moment at which the sun has just set, a full moon sets off a storm-clouded sky. Brilliant twilight illuminates many of his pictures. Twilight was a “favorite moment of Turner’s, and he invariably characterizes it,” as Ruskin points out, “not by gloom, but by uncertainty of detail.” The critic had “never seen the effect of clear twilight thoroughly rendered by art; that effect in which all details are lost, while intense clearness and light are still felt in the atmosphere, in which nothing is distinctly seen; and yet it is not darkness, far less mist, that is the cause of concealment.” Barry’s sketch of the Pools of Solomon (no. 47) indicates a clear sky. The cloud formations in the painting, then, are the products of Turner’s imagination. Ruskin continues: Show me a single picture, in the whole compass of ancient art, in which I can pass from cloud to cloud, from region to region, from first to second and third heaven, as I can here, and you may talk of Turner’s want of truth. Turn to the Pools of Solomon and walk Chapter Two through the passages of mist as they melt on the one hand into those stormy fragments of fiery cloud, or on the other into the cold solitary shadows that compass the sweeping hill; and when you find an inch without air and transparency, and a hair’s breadth without changefulness and thought; and when you can count the torn waves of tossing radiance that gush from the sun, as you can count the fixed, white, insipidities of Claude, or when you can measure the modulation and the depth of that hollow mist, as you can the flourish- es of the brush upon the canvas of Salvator, talk to Turner’s want of truth! Ruskin was so taken with Turner’s treatment of the sky in Pools of Solomon that, in his last volume of Modern Painters, he makes it an exemplar for his careful study of Turner’s sky perspective. Ruskin devised a series of complex diagrams and a woodcut to demonstrate Turner’s concentric circles of clouds. The treatment of the skies in the watercolor Babylon (no. 13, pi. V) and its expression of the inexhaustible living energy on which the universe thrives, however, best illustrates the artist’s perfect truths. Ruskin’s description is elaborate, but worth presenting in full: Ten miles away, down the Euphrates, where it gleams last along the plain, he gives us a drift of dark elon- gated vapor, melting beneath into a dim haze which embraces the hills on the horizon. It is exhausted with its own motion, and broken up by the wind in its own mass into numberless groups of billowy and tossing fragments which, beaten by the weight of storm down to the earth, and just lifting themselves again on wea- ried wings and perishing in the effort. Above these, and far beyond them, the eye goes back to a broad sea of white illuminated mist, or rather cloud melted into rain, and absorbed again before that rain has fallen, but penetrated throughout, whether it be vapor or whether it be dew, with soft sunshine, turning it as white as snow. Gradually, as it rises, the rainy fusion ceases. You cannot tell where the film of blue on the left begins, but is deepening, deepening still; and the cloud, with its edge first invisible, then all but imagi- nary, then just felt when the eye is not fixed on it, and lost when it is, at last rises, keen from excessive dis- tance, but soft and mantling in its body as a swan’s bosom fretted by faint wind; heaving fitfully against the delicate deep blue, with white waves, whose form are traced by the pale lines of opalescent shadow, shade only the light is within it, and not upon it, and which break with their own swiftness into a driven line of level spray, winnowed into threads by the wind and flung before the following vapor like those swift shafts of arrowy water which a great cataract shoots into the air beside it, trying to find the earth. Beyond these again, rises a colossal mountain of gray cumulus, through whose shadowed sides the sunbeams pene- trate in dim, sloping, rain-like shafts; and over which they fall in a board burst of streaming light, sinking to the earth, and showing through their own visible radi- ance the three successive ranges of hills which connect its desolate plain with space. Above, the edgy summit of the cumulus, broken into fragments, recedes into the sky, which is peopled in its serenity with quiet mul- titudes of the white, soft, silent cirrus; and, under these, again, drift near the zenith disturbed and impa- tient shadows of a darker spirit, seeking rest and find- ing rest and finding none. Turner never reached the Holy Land (“[H]is time for that pilgrimage is perhaps to come,” wrote Ruskin years after the artist’s death), but he heard the echoes of his admirers who had. In April 1841, Sir David Wilkie wrote to Sir Thomas Phillips from Jerusalem, “I thought of him [Turner] when I passed the ancient city of Jericho, though then, from the ravages of the retreating army, a smoking ruin. 1 can fancy what our friend would make of this and the Vale of Jordan, and the Dead Sea, the Wilderness of the Temptation and, above all, the Mount of Olives, Mount of Ascension, with all the mystery associated with it...” Sir Charles Barry’s Route and Early Nineteenth Century Maps of the Holy Land The order of the exhibition and, therefore, the sequence of the illustrations in the catalogue, traces the itinerary route most popular among travelers to the Holy Land in the early part of the nineteenth century. Indeed, this was the route Sir Charles Barry probably followed. His voyage would have begun at the port of Suez (nos. 11, 12, pi. IV), the easiest point of entry to the continent from the Mediterranean. Pilgrims also entered, but less often, at Jaffa (nos. 21 - 23), which was closer to Jerusalem, but less convenient, and from the north at Sidon (no. 61), which, at that time, had grown shabby from neglect. Turner, with his fondness for seascapes, painted all three ports. From Suez, visitors could either head north to Babylon (nos. 13, 14, pi. V) and Nineveh (nos. 15 - 17, pi. VI), ancestral homes of the Hebrews, or to the Sinai desert (nos. 18 - 20). The route along the southern shores of the Eastern Mediterranean took them to Jaffa, and from there, due east to Jerusalem (nos. 24 - 44, pis. VII, VIll, IX). Touring Jerusalem, they favored Bethlehem (nos. 45, 46) the Pools of Solomon (nos. 47, 48) and Rama (nos. 49, 50, pi. X). From there, travelers made their way V' IE Vi'S OF THE Holy Land to the Dead Sea, visited Engedi and Jericho (nos. 51 - 58, pis. XI, XII), and could be baptized in the Jordan River. Via Nazareth (nos. 59, 60), they continued on to Sidon (no. 61), then toward Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and the borders of Greece (nos. 62 - 70). This course evolved as cartographers surveyed and mapped the southern and eastern lands of the Mediterranean basin. These activities directly contributed to the development of the Great Powers and the deepening of their interest in the Near East.^* Pilgrimages to Palestine entailed great effort and real risk. Researchers strode its length and breadth, and investigated the specific natures and special features of all its regions. They were also attuned to its religious significance, however, and paid attention, above all, to archeological findings and biblical geog- raphy. Nonetheless, they knew very well that the clarification of the physical background was essential to their missions. Explorers only rarely realized their wishes to locate biblical sites using precise astronomical measurement. They selected and followed their itineraries carefully, compasses in hand, sketching and describing each detail. Their attempt to measure distances, according to the time required to cover them, court- ed inaccuracy at best. Those who could ambitiously sketched their observations, but their collective passion for archeology often distracted them. They searched for ruins, often identifying ancient settlements; they discovered inscriptions in ancient lan- guages, which they tried to transcribe. Nonetheless, they were also interested, perhaps to an ever greater extent, in the present and in the reality they encountered. Many of their geographiae sanctae, enlightening and often entertaining accounts of their travels, were published as journals. P)ven modern geographers find them to be a hidden treasure house of information and a reliable foundation for the reconstruction of the country’s cul- tural landscape during its period of total decline. CHAI’TFR Two In the eighteenth century, Richard Pococke, Carsten Neihuhr and C. F. C. Volney pioneered cartographic research into the Holy Land. However, the sphere of topographic and geographic knowledge and understanding expanded more sig- nificantly in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Indeed, the first large-scale, truly topographic map of the Land of Israel was drafted during one of Napoleon’s earliest campaigns, his 1798 expedition to Egypt. Hastily prepared en route, it suffers in comparison to similar contemporaneous maps of the European countries. In 1810, under the supervision of officer Jaquotin, the Erench corps of the military geographic engineers published a collection of forty-seven maps based on azimuth surveys. Most pertain to lower Egypt, only six to the Land of Israel. The accompanying text admits to its shortcomings, including the superficiality of its measurements. Indeed, later research reveals that most of its data, gathered from local resi- dents, were imaginary and totally devoid of fact. Nevertheless, Jaquotin’s work remained for forty years the most reliable cartographic description of the Land of Israel. In the early 1800s, there followed through the Middle East a pro- cession of skilled mapmakers, each improving or refining the work of his predecessor. Among these, Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus published, in his 1835 atlas, perhaps one of the most beautiful cartographic documents known thus far in the nine- teenth century. Berghaus aspired to precision and to the indica- tion of details to reflect the reality of the time. He also indicates the administrative units and delineates caravan routes. Yet, Berghaus fills in, with unsubstantiated details gleaned from questionable sources, areas that he has explored only minimal- ly, if at all. He was, however, the first to append to his maps a memoir, a meticulous report of his data and the cartographic process. Ever after, such memoirs accompanied all serious maps of the Land of Israel. Even with advanced techniques and technologies, the tra- dition of drawing unscientific reconnaissance maps to illustrate Scripture, lived under the category of historical maps. A typical example is Assheton’s Historical Map of Palestine, first pub- lished in 1822. It establishes the locations of the Ten Tribes of Israel, and is noteworthy for its strange mix of color and mod- ern stylistic elements. In a quintessentially nineteenth-century manner, it identifies major settlements by decorative drawings, and minor ones, by small towers. Some mountains are indicat- ed only to emphasize the setting of a town or biblical event (the prophet Elijah on Mt. Carmel, for example). Next to each illus- tration, Assheton provides the biblical chapter and verse. We see battles between groups of men armed with spears, the siege of Jericho, Samson bearing the gates of Gaza on his shoulders, tent encampments, Absalom hanging by his hair from a branch of a tree, Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee — in short, only sites connected to an event appear on this map. Edward Robinson broke new ground in the geographical study of Palestine. His famous volume. Biblical Researches ( I 838), was long known as a compendium of new and accurate knowledge about the Land of Israel. The famous German map- maker Heinrich Kipert drew the cartographic expression of the results of his studies that are appended to the book. The most worthy achievement of this work — and its nov- elty — from the cartographic point of view, derives from the improved security in Palestine. Unlike his predecessors, Robinson could travel off the beaten path. He was accompa- nied by the missionary Eli Smith, who spoke Arabic. Smith list- ed their destinations, and saw to it that the place-names were correctly transcribed. Robinson noted sequentially on a large strip map their routes and their observations in detail. He demonstrated extra- ordinary powers of observation, even of the morphological lines of the landscape, to which he paid more than the cursory atten- tion most tourists afforded them, tourists who, even though they were impressed by the grandeur of the backdrop, would describe it only in the vaguest terms or give undue emphasis to unimpor- tant details. In contrast, Robinson devoted a volume to the mor- phological structures and their causes. Physical Geography of the Holy Land, which was published posthumously only in 1865. In Palestine, Robinson referred to Jaquotin’s and Berghaus’s maps, but quickly found them hopelessly inaccurate. Thus, the maps drawn to record Robinson’s travels were universally received as a turning point in the cartography of Palestine with respect to their contents, if not to their cartographic style. Especially helpful to future mapmakers was Robinson’s system of using features of the landscape to help locate and verify bib- lical sites. In this summary of the new age of geographic research in the Middle East, one aspect deserves particular attention. The mapmakers discussed above lifted from the object of their research, the Holy Land, the halo of timelessness it had worn for centuries. They no longer related to only one time period, that of the establishment of the great religions. No longer was the Holy Land considered to be unique topographically and geo- graphically, or to be qualitatively different from all other lands. Scholars finally acknowledged that they knew very little about Palestine, particularly natural phenomena. Indeed by 1835, researchers had established coordinates for no more than ten set- tlements, and only first determined altitude (by measuring the temperature of boiling water) in the 1830s. As the nineteenth century waned, Palestine, like Egypt, had stirred public fascination the world over. These reports of car- tographers and geologists kept the curious informed. Access to, and mobility within, the region improved and visitors came with fewer stereotypical expectations than in previous centuries. They Views of the H o r y Land saw Palestine as an unknown territory where the distant past fil- tered through the veil of the present. They felt obliged to dis- cover the existing reality, and consciously, perhaps, pursued it completely differently than the earlier pilgrims had. They acquired certain skills of the naturalist, the geographer and the cartographer; and no matter how cardinal their interests in bib- lical geography, they had no doubts that familiarity with the physical geographical and topographical realities was a precon- dition for understanding the past. They went beyond merely determining the vast difference between the Land of Israel in biblical times and the land of Israel in its nineteenth century decline; they also demonstrated, even indirectly through the descriptions of their encounters, the circumstances of the fall and, frequently, the reasons for it. These nineteenth-century explorers devoted a great deal of space in their records to these descriptions, for the Land of Israel, apart from its value as the backdrop for biblical events, exerted another lure. Exotic and picturesque in its Arab garb, romantic in the vestiges of a glorious past, Palestine enchanted nineteenth century Europeans. Especially earlier in the century, explorers in the Holy Land often faced real dangers and con- ducted their travels clandestinely, sometimes even in disguise, so as not to arouse suspicions. Anyone who browses through the descriptions of the voyages of the earliest e.xplorers and the accompanying prints of copper or steel engravings will quickly realize how exquisitely suited the country was to the outlook of the explorers and their generation. These attitudes found expres- sion in the great quantity of Arabic place names, an abundance which reveals the new appreciation of a factual approach and the explorer’s eyewitness accounts. The publication by the Finden brothers of Turner’s engrav- ings, in 1835, coincided with the publication, in London, of one of the most beautiful updated maps of the Holy Land: Seaton’s Chapter Two Map of Palestine, or the Holy Land, with Parts of Egypt by the engraver Josiah Neele, (no. 78, pi. XIV) . This map affords the opportunity to view the route Sir Charles Barry followed and the engraving also maps the distribution of the twelve Tribes of Israel. The general atmosphere is emphasized and strengthened by means of the illustration in the upper left-hand corner of the map which depicts Jesus and the Samarian woman, a subject to which Turner devoted an engraving in the Liber Studiorum. NO. 78 Seaton's Map of Palestine, or the Holy Land with Parts of Egypt 1836 engraving 850 X 990 published by Josiah Neele Hafia .Museum of Art, Israel 48 Views of the Holy Land Egypt with the View of the Pyramids of Ghizah Sou of man, utter a la?7jent over Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, saying to him: lion of the nations, you are destroyed, you were like a monster in the sea, spouting in your streams, stirrmg the waters with your feet and churning its streatns. Ezekiel 32.: 2 The pyramids, those most extraordinary monuments of Egyptian power and industry, still rouse the wonder and admiration of the world. As seen in this drawing (no. 8), the architectural magnif- icence of the Pyramids inspired Barry. His travel journals record- ed and described them in great detail.'^ Although Turner relied heavily on Barry’s sketches to complete each view of the pyramids of Ghizah (variously written “Geezah”), Turner adds a fourth pyramid to both the watercolor and the engraving (nos. 9, 10, pi. III). Turner also positions his viewer closer to the impos- ing pyramids, unlike Barry, who, perhaps drawing from a great distance, describes a flat and boundless desert that diminishes their magnitude. Perhaps Turner adds the Arabs and camels in the foreground for comparative elevation as well. Pl.ATE III, PAGE 1 2 49 Chapter Two T'J “If ,, t.-- Sir Charles Barry Pyramids of Ghizab (Album IV: Egypt and Nubia) c. 1819 pencil on paper 111 X 336 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 50 Views of the Holy I.and NO- lo J. M. W. Turner l.i(yt>t i"ith thi \ u’lc :./ th-- ‘•’yramids ■; / l8',f: eneraviiii;, tir-,i pii ilish; s! si.ite printed (in India paper .-H X .5 ■ engra..d by F.d" .rd 1. Fii den • ;)IUvri()n iit Mie ji 1 v ( ); u r, ei A' is 51 Chapter Two The Red Sea and Suez Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night, and so turned it into dry land. Exodus 14: 21 Both this watercolor (no. 1 1, pi. IV) and engraving (no. 12) show the busy port city of Suez, at the northern point of the Red Sea on what is said to have been the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. The port of Suez occupied a crucial position in the region long before the Suez Canal was opened in 1869, running north to south and linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Until the eighteenth century, Suez was a significant naval port and commercial center under the Ottoman Turks. As early as the twentieth century B.C., a canal built by Egyptian kings existed in the area, running from west to east, connecting the Nile to the Red Sea. This early canal was repeatedly modified, destroyed and rebuilt until it was final- ly closed in the eighth century A.D. Turner offers a subtle reference to the port’s historical past in the form of the row of half-submerged stones on the left, pos- sibly the remains of an ancient pier. By juxtaposing the active shipbuilding scenes in the foreground with this ruin in the water. Turner refers to the rich historical backdrop against which all his images of the Holy Land play, something that would have inter- ested viewers in nineteenth-century Europe. Eor them, the bibli- cal significance of the Red Sea was clear, and a view of the contemporary port of Suez on its shores would have brought them closer to the ancient region. The type of vessel represented is called a dao, peculiar to the Red Sea, and is related to proto- types mentioned variously in the Bible. The Red Sea extends from the mountains of Sinai to the west, the mountains of Edom to the east, and the Midian to the south. The ancient Hebrews called it the Sea of Edom and, as edom means “red” in Hebrew, it was translated literally by the Greeks into the Red Sea. It is the body water said to have been parted by Moses for the Israelites as they fled Egypt. Pi.A I'E iv, page 1 3 5 ^ Views of the Holy Land \. M. \\. liiriK-r Thr Ri d Siif i!nd Suf - I N 5 . !igniv ini>, first publish- ci -.r K.- priiirsd on pL; s'r 1 -rr, ■; 2.^0 -'ngr;iv> .i hv f-dw.iid I. 1 oid. i' I olKsdon Mo. dii hai C'ool ’I; \\ n 53 Chapter Two Babylon Babylon shall become a heap of rums, a haunt of Jackals; a place of horror and ridicule, inhere no one lives. Jeremiah 51:37 At the center of the foremost hill of this watercolor (no. 13, pi. V), a lone figure sits with its back to the observer and its face toward the open landscape. This figure, added by Turner, epito- mizing the full significance of the Romantic traveler, holds a sheet of paper in his hand and appears to be transferring what his eyes behold to a visual or textual image that becomes an inte- gral part of him. His frequent insertion of the figure of the artist at work within the landscape reveals how Turner sees himself at work as an artist within his own pictures. In this example, the figure is most assuredly of equal importance to the panoramic landscape itself. At the crest of the Hill of Amran, several groups, perhaps ori- ental guides and guards and European travelers, gather. One visi- tor, in the center, seems to be reading. The crumbling bricks and walls in the immediate foreground may be the remains of the mau- soleum of the prophet for whom the hill is named. From this sum- mit, we notice many irregular mounds and hillocks, only a part of the relics of ancient Babylon. Turner portrays a deserted, dry land- scape devoid even of scrub, acknowledging the ancient biblical prophecy that “Babylon shall become heaps. ..it shall never be inhabited” (Isaiah 13: 20 - 21). Only the Euphrates meandering to the left, relieves the eye from such desolation and contrasts sharply with the pillar of dust, on the extreme right. In the center, an oblong mass of ruin called Mujelihe, “overturned” in Arabic, dominates a gloomy plane. Scudding clouds in an expansive sky- scape add to the bleakness of the scene. Plate vi, page 1 5 54 V'lEWS OF THE Holy I.and ^O- 14 J. M. \\. Turiicr Bdhylan 1.S34 engraving, firs' published st.rv printed on India paper 180 X i>8 engraved by ). '■ ousen v ollectiiin of Mordechai nnier, Tel-Aviv Chapter Two Nineveh, Mousoul on the Tigris Till everyone who sees you runs from you, saying, ‘Nineveh is destroyed; who can pity her? Where can one find any to console her?’ Nahum 3: 7 Turner gives a picturesque view of Nineveh (no. 16, pi. VI), from a higher perspective than that originally recorded in a drawing by Claudius James Rich in 1836 (no. 15). In the left foreground of the watercolor, we see a row of men, some on horseback, some on camelback, and others on foot. At center-right, three men gather, and at far right, a solitary silhouetted figure stands at the edge of the high rocky ridge. Below the ridge, two small figures wind around a walled mosque that sits isolated above the Tigris. Across the river, on a gently sloping hill, is the town of Mousoul. Both the isolated hill on the near bank of the Tigris and the bleak ridges on the far bank — where we see a section of wall, some ruins, and, on the central ridge, what seems to be a fort — are thought to be the site of ancient Nineveh, which, according to prophecy, like Babylon, was to “become a desolation” (Zephaniah 11: 13, 15). In the distance, behind the town and the ridges to its right, a series of hills rises in parallel rows. The inter- play of dark, churning clouds and bright shafts of sunlight illuminate the entire scene. Plate, \t, page i 5 56 Views of the Holy Land NO. I 5 Claudius James Rich Nineveh Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh, with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an account of a visit Shiraz and Persepolis 1836 engraving Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv 57 Chapter Two J. M. \X. Tiirnpr Moiifniil 1)11 th> Tigris ... 18.5 I'ligraving, first published s"ate pi UMid on India paper 180 X 25 5 ■ iigr.aved by \X. Radclib i ;illi\ ilon I! .Mordeehai v^mer, TebA\'iv ,S8 Views of the Holy Land The Wilderness of Sinai who guided you throughout the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions; its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from flinty rock. Deuteronomy 8: 15 In this engraving (no. 18), Turner enriches the primeval land- scape of Sinai with a Western traveler and his local Bedouin guides. His clothing, hat, weapon and equipment contrast with the dress and customs of the villagers. Turner adds narrative value as well as Romantic drama (the encounter with the “other”) by populating the landscape with human figures. Here, Turner represents Mount Sinai and the plain of Rephidim, where Moses gave the decalogue to the Jews (Exodus 19: 20). The large, single rock in the foreground once may have been a cliff of the mountain. The Arabs call the rock “the Stone of Moses” or Meribah, Hebrew for “dispute.” According to the Old Testament, Moses struck the rock and, miraculously water gushed forth to supply the thirsty Israelites (Exodus 13: 1 - 7, Numbers 20: 7 - 11). The flow has etched a channel in the rock, the face of which bears a column of four or five fissures. Thus, the psalmist says, “He cleft the rocks in the desert and gave them water in copious floods. He made streams flow from the crag, and brought the waters forth in the rivers. He opened the rock and the waters gushed out. They ran in dry places like a river” (Psalms 78: 15 - 16). The Bedouins, who greatly venerate the rock, put grass into the fissures as an offering to the memory of Moses and as a fertility rite. 59 C H A I' I I K T\\ O NO. I 8 |. W. Turner •S .• cii!;! 111;;, published -.lat^ ;> ii'i-rd nil Indi: papi r I — \ ’ .^4 ■ Her. . d h\ Fd'-. -'i d F. Finden i.olliiin. I ■- .Mnrdi.hai i Imer, lei \\ iv 6o X'lEws OF THE Holy Land Abraham 1 la\ The \\'/7 .oruechai < )mer, Tel-Aviv 78 Vie Vi'S of the Holy 1. and .it; a. I-, -. • • ' • • . j* • . ^ NO. 3 ; Abraham Hay Mojnit Moriah I 986 silver gelatin print 4on X 508 .Me.Mullen .Museum of .Art, Boston ( n liege, (iift k . >/ Kidrou 1 986 silver gelatin print 406 X 508 Ml .Mullen .Museum :)f .Art, Boston Ciollege. (lift ot the Friends of the .Museum 83 Chapter Two Jerusalem, Pool of Bethesda Now there is in Jerusalem at the sheep [gate] a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. John 5: 2 While Barry’s drawings evidence his care for the architectural ele- ments of this view, traditionally called the Pool of Bethesda (nos. 37, 38), figures populate the foreground of Turner’s watercolor (no. 39, pi. VIII) and engraving (no. 40), both entitled Near the Gate of Saint Stephen. The figures, shown exploring the ruins by ladder, symbolize, apparently, the quest for knowledge and research that characterized visitors to this ancient city early in the nineteenth century. Indeed, these were the beginnings of archeol- ogy in the huge archeological site called Jerusalem. Among the local Arab population, the area is better known as Berket El Serail, or the Pool of the Palace (John 5: 2 - 9). The Gate of Saint Stephen derives its name from the proto martyr who is said to have been dragged through it to the spot upon which he was stoned to death (Acts 7: 57 - 59). According to the New Testament, the gate was the scene of miraculous healing and thus came to be known as the House of Mercy. Turner shows the once-deep pool in decay, sullied by weeds and rubbish. To the left, he has drawn one of the walls enclosing the Temple Mount. The vaulted arches on the side of the pool farthest from the view- er may have been an aqueduct that supplied water to the temple. Turner’s depiction of domes, minarets and buildings convey an accurate impression of the nineteenth-century city. In the left foreground, a man has scaled a tall ladder that leans against the imposing wall. Several men below seem to await his descent. On the right is a group of seated women, and close to the edge of the pool, a couple stands near a second ladder. Plate vhi, page 17 84 Views of the Holy Land 37 Sir Charles Barry Jerusalem, Pool of Bethesda (Album I: Egypt and Nubia) c. 1819 pencil on paper, pasted on cardboard 28’ X 408 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 85 Chapter Two pool- OF BETHESOA i ERVSML.&M NO. 38 Sir Charles Barry Pool of liethesda, Jerusalem (Album V: Israel Sketches) c. 1819 pencil on paper 170 X 2.73 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 86 \' I E \s s o E THE Holy Land 40 |. M. \\, lurner thi’ f. . 1 / S.iin! Srfjh; n .>t Ji ; h jIciji, V . I 8 ’,4 engraving, first published Ntate printed on India paper I 80 \ 140 engrawd by l.dward K 1 inden t olli '. tion ot Mordeehai Ifnier, lel-Aviv 87 Chapter Two Jerusalem from the Latin Convent Here we see Jerusalem from the highest point of the Old City: atop the Latin Convent in the northwestern portion of the Christian Quarter. In the Barry drawing (no. 41), as well as in the foreground of Turner’s watercolor (no. 42, pi. IX), the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands out conspicuously among the clustered houses. The background comprises almost all the holy places of the Old City. Part of the convent, the Old Casa Nova, now the Franciscan Pilgrims’ Offices, was, for many generations, the main hostel for Christian pilgrims. Barry prob- ably stayed in this hostel when he visited Jerusalem over Easter in 1819. The exquisite engraving (no. 43) appears in none of the edi- tions of Finden’s Landscape Illustrations of the Bible, and may have been issued in 1833 as a specimen plate. Plate ix, page i8 88 Views of the Holy Land Eg^'pt and Nubia) C. 1819 pencil on paper 465 X 670 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 89 Chapter Two NO. 43 |. \i. W. Turner jeriisiilem, from the luitiii Convent 1833 engraver’s proof I 3 3 \ 90 engraved by Edward F. Finden Clift of Tamar and Teddy Kolleck, Jerusalem, The Israel Museum Collection, Jerusalem 90 Views of the Holy Land 44 Abraham Hay IcniSiilcm fyam thr l.atm i jitivcnt i9.S(. silver gelatin print MeMullen Museum of Art, Roston i ollege. (lift of the f riends of the Museum 91 Chapter Two Bethlehem When Jesus born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem. Matthew i : i This engraving underscores the vast difference between Barry, who still drew the Holy Land with the eye of a Neo-classicist, and Turner, who was not only among the founders of the English Romantic movement, but also its epitome. Turner incorporates the story of the Holy Family (no. 46) into Barry’s landscape (no. 45). In Hebrew, the name Bethlehem implies “a house of bread,” a reference, perhaps, to the very fertile soil, about six miles southwest of Jerusalem upon which both Jesus and King David were born. Furthest left, like a citadel, stands the convent of San Giovanni, which contains the Church of the Nativity. In the engraving. Turner has introduced a star above that church to draw the viewer’s eye. The figures in the foreground recall the Holy Family iconography, especially the mother and child, a sub- ject that Turner painted in oil as early as 1803. 92 Views of the Holy Land 45 Sir Clharles Barry Bethlehem (Album II: Holy Laud and Syria) C. 1819 pencil and brown ink wash 2.70 X 365 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 93 C^MAl’ I l. R Two ■''■’jT’ j. M. W. Turner ( . I 8 : I ■n^i ; ill-;, fir--; puMished state jiriiiu-d (-n Ird;*; p.ijier X S5S vS;, -. u ; - d- srd E Fu d:u,,?i > 18 >4 engraving, fir'-i publishtd -.rate printed nn India paper 1 80 X iS'i engrav; d by . Siephenson t :illi Ltic>n T Miirdeehai Omi r, a-l A\ i\ 97 C^HAI’TER Two Ramah with the Building Called Rachel’s Tomb Thus says the Lord: Tn Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of hitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to he consoled because her children are no more.' Jeremiah 31: 15 Across the immediate foreground of this watercolor, by the edge of a small copse, hungry wolves attack a flock of grazing sheep, and, to the right, one sheep bends over its dead companion (no. 49, pi. X). This imagined scene occurs between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, not far from the large, solitary domed building that is believed to be the Tomb of Rachel. The mausoleum appears isolated, despite its roadside setting. Its protective walls, the dark woods to the left, the tents between the tomb, as well as the gray, walled city of Ramah in the background contribute to the melan- choly effect. It was in biblical Ramah that the prophet Samuel was born, anointed King Saul, and eventually died. Trees, bush- es and grassy stubble cover the intervening dark ridges and slopes; ominous hills rear up gradually, gray and steep, finally reaching into curling wisps of cloud and mist. Plate x, page 19 98 Views of the Holy Land ^‘’■ 50 |. M. W. Turner Ramah with the Buildiiiy aUid R.-ihd's tn-nh iSvs cTigra\ ing, first puhlisht-d stati printed mi India paper !-■; \ is-4 engra'eed by W illiam l inden ( iilleetion (if Mordiehai t 'mer, lel-Avn 99 Chapter Two The Wilderness of Engedi and the Convent of Santa Saba And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the philistines, that was told him, saying 'Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.' I Samuel 30: i Deep ravines wind through the barren Mountains of Judah. Engedi, which means “fount of the kid” in Hebrew, was one of many cities founded on a group of hills just above the Dead Sea. The Convent of Santa Saba was founded in the sixth centu- ry. The convent is situated at the summit of a three- or four-hun- dred feet deep ravine, at the bottom of which flows the Brook of Kidron. Seen in both of Barry’s drawings (nos. 51, 52) and Turner’s watercolor and engraving (nos. 53, 54, pi. XI), the church stands on a small eminence at the bottom of the dell, and above it rise the buildings of the monastery. The dome, near the center of the watercolor, contains the tomb of Saint Saba, who instituted the monastic and eremitic life here in the fourth centu- ry. A flight of steps from the roof of the convent leads to a nar- row wooden tower overlooking the deep wilderness. Other flights lead to several small terraces built so as to retain what lit- tle arable soil there was and upon which the monks cultivated a variety of vegetables for the convent’s kitchen. Turner adds monks walking in the foreground and approaching the steep incline to the monastery. Engedi was famed for its abundant vineyards: “My lover is for me a cluster of Henna from the vineyards of Engedi” (Song of Songs 1, 14). 1 Samuel 24:3 tells us that Saul “went in search of David and his men in the direction of the wild goat crags.” Turner aptly represents the recesses, or “strong-holds,” that con- cealed David from Saul (1 Samuel 23: 29). 100 Views of the Holy Land 1 8 o.. pL’Hcil on paper S90 \ 540 British Arehiteetural l.ibrary Drawings L ollection/ Royal Institute of British Arehitiets 101 Chapter Two NO. 52 Sir Charles Barry Convent of Santa Saba lAlhiiin V: Israel Sketches) c. 1819 ink on paper, pasted on cardboard 275 X 360 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 102 I E w s OF THE Holy Land Nil . M V., T: r - F (il , l . : ; = i' St pi'lih'l' . vi -r-i. 11; J lliji p ip. s ^ -f •ri;: U : J ';\ .. B. Alll 1 t .:il.,ti in ,.i XN dtph 1 i ; I '- i, T;i \ Chap I LK Two ^ 5 Abrnham I lay I hi' i ttiJ till ijf .ij/.v- T jit-latin Pi int \ ,lll( I .-lj-.:uri: ;■ Alt, bc;'.t!)ll C 'llllL^v^. ti n- t.i- Fi i-ltls tbi; MusPiint. 104 Views of the Holy Land Jericho The Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of the palms, and as far as Zoar. Deuteronomy 34: 3 Far left, in the immediate foreground of this engraving (no. 56), within a darkened hollow. Turner suggests two Arab horsemen, their steeds and their long staffs. Just above them, and to the right of a tree, sits a single onlooker. In the center-foreground, by the edge of a low stone wall, a European woman with a small child by her side, reclines. Just behind her, a helmeted Arab horseman carries a gun over his left shoulder and a staff in his right hand. Behind him is yet another mounted figure. In the cen- ter of the foreground, groups of horsemen and oriental figures gather beside a large circular tent. The dwelling in the right fore- ground is typical of Jericho. It has one door, few windows and unreliable wooden eaves; a large cloth is stretched from the roof and pegged to the ground to provide shade. The other buildings are just as meager, except for the tall stone tower at the far left, which seems to have fallen into disrepair. Several local women sit in their courtyard tending goats. Nearest to us some carpets are slung over a low, mud wall. The trees just beyond help to con- trast this well-watered oasis with the barren mountains of the Judean Desert. Leading up to the central peak. Mount Quarantaria, “a very high mountain,” according to Matthew 4: 8, is a row of derelict and forlorn dwellings, which may once have belonged to Christian hermits and penitents. The almost cloudless sky is typical of such a desert region. 105 Chapter Two io6 NO. 56 |. M. w. Turner jerichi: 1835 engraving, first published state printed on India paper 175 X 257 engraved by William Hinden Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv Views of the Holy Land The Dead Sea, Jericho and the Mouth of the Jordan The Eastern boundary was the Salt Sea as far north as the mouth of the Jordan. Joshua 15: 5 The group of pilgrims which Turner has included in the left fore- ground of this watercolor (no. 57, pi. XII) is of particular inter- est. Their clothing tells us that they are visitors rather than easterners, European Christians on their way to baptism in the waters of the Jordan. As in other views. Turner’s representation of the pilgrim is intended to directly connect his European view- er with the subject of the Holy Land. The background of this view shows the range of mountains, called the Moab and Edom, that border the Dead Sea to the east. The foreground unfolds the vast desert plain of the Arava at the foot of the wilderness of Judah. The lake, center, is about 394 meters below sea level, the lowest spot on the surface of the earth. Scripture variously refers to this celebrated saline lake lying in a valley with a plain lying to its south as The Sea of the Plain (Deuteronomy 3: 17; 4; 49), The Salt Sea (Deuteronomy 3: 17), The Salt Sea Eastward (Numbers 34: 3), and, by virtue of its location relative to Judah, The East Sea (Ezekiel 47: 18; Joel 2: 20). It is most widely known as The Dead Sea, for the fatal effect of its water on practically all organic life. The river Jordan daily discharges large quantities of water into the sea, then turns to the southeast and remains visible for ten or fifteen miles. Then it disappears in an easterly curve. In the engraving. Turner distinctly delineates the Jordan as it flows alongside the city of Jericho. The mountains on the Judean side (one of which we can see on the right) are lower than the Mountains of Moab on the Arabian side, which are prominent in the distance. Plate .xii, page 11 107 Chapter Two The Dead Sea, Jericho ami the Mouth of the Jordan [834 engraving, first published stare printed on India paper I 73 X i46 engraved by Edward F. Finden Ciollettion nf Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv 108 View s of the Holy Land Nazareth He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth; so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be ftdfilled. ‘He shall he called a Nazarene.” Matthevi’ 2: 23 While a small group of human figures are quickly drawn — per- haps for scale — into the left foreground of Barry’s view of the city (no. 59), in contrast, Turner devotes a great deal of attention to the pilgrims, laying out the ritual drama in all its particulars, and linking the viewer with the view. The engraving (no. 60) shows the central figure from the back, its arms spread wide to the open landscape. A succession of low hills encircles the valley, verdant, serene and bathed in a warm, late-afternoon light. On the hillock, in the foreground, a flock of sheep rests contentedly beside a cart path. To the right, pilgrims gather in prayer and meditation beneath a stand of trees. Nazareth, where Christ spent much of his youth, spreads across the valley. Center scene. Turner sketches the spire of a mosque. To the left, at the edge of a long wall, where the rocky high ground joins the valley, once the site, according to the New Testament, of Joseph and Mary’s house, and where Gabriel saluted the Virgin Mary, are both the Latin Convent and the Church of the Incarnation. Drab houses, scattered across the countryside, almost fade into the natural landscape. 109 Chapter Two NO. 59 Sir Charles Barry Nazareth (Album 1: Egypt and Nubia) c. 1819 pencil on paper 150 X 365 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 1 10 V 1 1 w s OF THE Holy Land I. M. \\. Turn - iH -4 rnnr n. ing, first 'ublisii-d * mi- d ■)!! li di.i pn )■ r i-c s >50 niv ; i-:fd ns thv ' 1 ! }, I 111 ■ i : IL- lion oi .\l;- J. 1 l:.r C -'ni. r. 1 I I Chapter Two SiDON Oti the following day we put in at Sidon where Julius was kind enough to allow Paul to visit his friends who took care of him. The Acts of the Apostles zy: 3 The town of Sidon was known for its great shipwrights. As 1 Kings (5: 6) tells us, “none [other] were skilled to hew timber like the Zidonians.” Acts (27: 3) mentions St. Paul’s visit. Reputed to have been founded by the eldest of the sons of Canaan, Sidon, in ancient times, was also famous for the wealth of its inhabitants. The town juts boldly out to sea; King Louis IX of France is thought to have built the now-ruined castle upon the elevation to the right of the town, as well as the nearly isolated tower before the Saracens invaded. The figures in the foreground of this engraving (no. 61) prepare the nets just cast from the small boats on the right. Behind the town, the land rises sharply from the sea, leaving almost no coastal plain. In the far distance, the bare and rugged Lebanon mountain range rises dramatically. 1 12 \' I h W S OF THE H O L F L A N D J. M. \\. Iiinu-r Suioii I . I 8 ;4 cngra\ ing. 'irsr piihlishcd start printt;d ttn India paper lit \ i-6 > iij;i !'.;d by W illiani Fmden ( Dlltcriun >it Mo dt ^bai Om. r, Tel- Aviv 1 >3 Chapter Two Lebanon from Tripoli open the doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may dei’our your cedars. Zachariah I i: I In an almost subconscious fashion, it is possible to see in this engraving (no. 63) how Turner adds his old loves — fishing boats, fishermen, nets — to this biblical landscape, carefully adding detail to the boats Barry roughly sketched (no. 62). There is no doubt that alongside the historical citation of New Testament stories and the Crusader battlements, the contempo- rary human element is always present and makes itself felt in all of Turner’s works. Tripoli, which the Arabs call Tarabolus and the Greeks and Romans call Tripolis, is situated under the lowest hills of Lebanon. Turner captures the city’s architecturally defensive pos- ture which it retains from the Crusades; two castles in the back- ground, erected during the years of those invasions, reign from on high. The prophet Zachariah, foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian policy toward the Jews exhorts Lebanon: “Open the doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars” (Zachariah 11: 1). 114 1 15 Sir Charles Barry Tripoli (Albio 7 i II: Holy Land and Syria) c. 1819 pencil on paper 146 X 330 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects Chapter Two ^■o. 63 j. \i_ Turner Lebanon, from Tripoli 183 s engraving, first published state printed on India paper 175 X 150 engraved by Edward F. Finden ? ollection 'if Mordeehai Omer, Tel-Avi\ ri6 Views of the Holy Land Mount Lebanon and the Convent oe St. Antonio / will be like the dew of Israel: he shall blossom like the lily. He shall strike root like the cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; They shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebajwn. Hosea 14: 6 - 8 The ascent of the mountain and the testimony to man’s need to make a path for himself between these enormous boulders is developed and emphasized in Turner’s work (no. 65). This engraving shows Turner’s return to the starting point of pic- turesque art, which was a significant influence not only on this great artist’s early work, but also in his more mature work. The Old Testament glorifies Mt. Lebanon in metaphor and compelling description. Some of the mountain’s peaks are capped with snow the year round. The Maronite Convent of Saint Antonio stands on the isolated spot where the Saint of Kozhaia was reputed to have spent part of his life in solitary meditation. The lodgings of the austere brethren, the lonely cells and her- mitages embrace the cliffs above the convent. 117 Chapter Two ■ ■ f _ -- \ / . -- t-K^r r-' ^ \ S ' ■■ C-- ^ fr V ' \ •Af-; ■ ( f ■r j-^ I ‘; r- / r^'*' T'-;. r^r'' ry .f R 9 1 • • ' « V • • ■ Cw-- ■■ / c r- ,, ' ,-0 . ■ '1C {.V ''': ,?!-• .TA. . V-Cr=i^-M- a;'. . c. " -'-- ■ I ' '■y ■yd . Vi- •'v • : AJ, r-O C', i ("c ■ -\ ''^A C . ■• • = -T.'\v_ -- ->V A 'V . V- • ' >'• 1 "- ' r: i^.~ f .'. Kr-^ w , f .- y- • ;;• I'l ^ ' ViS 'CCv v«tC "’: ';! ' ' > -X •• *■ • '•- ■■ V J: TT. v.,..C v-: y'A - A:-ri: • ■ • ■ ' A V'*- ’ ‘'Ajv ■€' dli y ., ,u- T^AV-: ’mH -•- T NO. 64 5;j. Charles Barry Mount I.ebanon and the Convent of St. Antonio (Album I: Egypt and Nubia) c. 1819 pencil on paper 330x4^0 ij3 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects \' I E w s OF THE Holy Land |. M. W. Turm- ALi/';;/ / r'ajm >i aud the : ee Si ‘^'4 v-n”,r.i\ ing, first published ^t. priiiL-d !>n India paper I So \ 2.5 5 • Hi; :\.d L' William Fimlen f iilittrion of Mordi i h u > 'iv. r, T. 1 Avi' I 19 ‘■NiCs Chapter Two Corinth (Cenchrea) Paul remained for quite some time, and after saying farewell to the brothers he sailed for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchrea he had his hair cut because he had taken a vow. The Acts of the Apostles i8: i8 This engraving (no. 66) presents a busy harbor scene in tbe east- ern port of Corintb, also known as Cenchrea, which may be derived from the name of one of Neptune’s sons. Under a bright, friendly sky, Greek and, likely, Turkish vessels jostle one another in the crowded harbor where fishermen have hauled in their nets. Turner has strewn the shipboards with articles of their labors: oars, poles and bags. Traders’ tents crowd the shore. Wealthy and servant women travelers gather in the foreground. One young woman rolls up a blanket; another, perhaps a nurse, holds a baby. Behind her, sailors and traders look on, perhaps having just furled the sails of their vessel; behind this craft a young cou- ple gazes towards us. On the far, left a single sailor stands at the bow of his low-slung craft. Beyond some large Mediterranean buildings, both at the center and far right, we can glimpse part of the busy isthmus between tbe Aegean and Ionian seas. Across tbe isthmus, on a steep hill, a few well-spaced buildings lead to tbe imposing Acropolis of Corintb. On the far right, atop a peak, is an isolated tower, one of the few sites to which the Acropolis might have been strategically vulnerable. 120 Views of the Holy Land |. M. \X. Turner ( •.■riiith - i cnchrea' 1834 engraving, tirsi published state printed on India paper i-S X engraved by Kdward F. I inden t olleetion of Mordechai Omer, lel-Aviv 121 Chapter Two Rhodes Wheti we had taken leave of them, we set sail, made a straight run for Cos, and on the next day for Rhodes, and from there to Patara. The Acts of the Apostles 21: i The detailed treatment of both the figures and the city of Rhodes depicted in Turner’s engraving (no. 68) contrasts sharply with the simple, linear silhouette that Barry produced of the city (no. 67). Clearly, Turner relied more upon his imagination and skill to produce this elaborate scene than upon the pencil drawing shown here. The individual character and expression contained by the group of idealized Greek women in the foreground of this engraving negates the view that Turner was either uninterested or unable to draw the human figure. A small figure, far left, appears to pump water into a large well for the women com- pleting their domestic chores. One woman reclines on the flagstones, leaning an elbow on her water jug; further to the right a man rests beside a low stone wall, perhaps the seller of the locally crafted jugs and vases displayed in the foreground. The hill behind slopes sharply down past the picturesque walled city of Rhodes, its houses standing close to the water’s edge. Mastheads and sails fill the small narrow entrance to the busy harbor, while tiny white sails cfot the sea beyond. The tower to the left of the harbor entrance supposedly occupies the former site of the Colossus of the Sun, one of the seven wonders of the world, which supposedly straddled the harbor. A rich and pow- erful republic before Vespasian reduced it to a Roman province, Rhodes was the last bastion of Christian chivalry before the Ottomans. In the far distance, beyond the coast of Asia Minor, we see and the mountains of Caramania. At the far left the sun is setting on Cape Crio (or Cridos), its perfect reflection in the languid waters is interrupted only by a few sailing boats. 122 Views of the Holy Land » WaOlr ' V. ■ .Y . ri- . < ; ‘ •' ' '• «>•.'. ; /r; 9 NO. 67 5i|- Charles Barry Rhodes i Album III: Asia Minor and Archipelago) c. 1819 pencil on paper 232 X 295 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 1^3 Chapthr Two |. M. W. Turner Rhudes 18^5 engraving, firsr published -.tate printed on India paper 178 X 2.5 5 engraved b\ x. Fisher t ollt . :i(,n iii Mordi chai Omer, Tel-Aviv 124 Views of the Holy Land As SOS We went ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos where we were to take Paid on board, as he had arranged, since he was going overland. The Acts of the Apostles 20: 13 The vast difference between Barry’s documentary drawings, such as this sketch of Assos (no. 69), and Turner’s detailed picture of the same subject (no. 70), attests to the revolution which English art underwent in that short period between 1819 and 1834, or perhaps, more precisely, the transition between the Neo-classical outlook and the Modern. The infiltration of the figures into the foreground of the Turner engraving and the tension created between the ruin and the travelers is the starting point of what has become accepted as an icon for the entire Romantic move- ment: the ruins and the man who lives them anew with all their memories, hopes and disappointments. Amid quiet desolation, two European women watch their guides clamber over the ruins in the center foreground. At left, a pair of sheep graze in the shadow of a broken wall; to the right a few goats dot a bare slope. This is Assos, once a great maritime city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, where Luke and the other compan- ions of St. Paul rejoined with their ship. The remains of an imposing arched gateway, the large tower and the antique lintels recall a once-famous city. 12.5 Chapter Two NO. 69 5j|- Charles Barry Assos (Album III: Asia Minor and Archipelago) c. 1819 pencil and brown ink wash on paper 2.50 X 330 British Architectural Library Drawings Collection/ Royal Institute of British Architects 126 \' 1 1 w s OF T M E Holy Land I. M. W. ill, :, i p-ii'N d i- 1 Ln’;.! ; '■ I N. \ ^ \x- L,-:.-n Ni-mJ.-.': i ■' Iv I, 1^7 Chapter Three CHAPTER THREE Biblical Allusions in the Illustration of Literary Works J . M. W. Turner achieved professional success — and middle age — by the time he began illustrating literary works. Between 1825, when he produced seven full-page drawings for John Murray’s eleven-volume edition of Lord Byron’s Works, and 1839, when he completed four vignettes for Irish poet Thomas Moore’s Epicurean, Turner accepted several other liter- ary commissions and designed over two hundred watercolor models for engravings on steel. Contemporaneous romantic literature and philosophy were steeped in the concepts and images of biblical history and prophecy. “The Old and New Testaments,” wrote William Blake, “are the Great Code of Art.” And Percy Bysshe Shelley, in the list of books he considered necessary for a library of substance, includes, “last yet first, the Bible.” As Turner worked, refer- ences, reflecting the imageries and ethics, as well as the lan- guages, of both bibles appeared repeatedly in almost every literary work that he embellished. Turner tried — and succeeded — in some illustrations, like Jerusalem, which he executed as a frontispiece for The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart, Vol. 6 (1834) to portray the ambiance of the Holy City, to design a “topographical stage” against which the dramas Scott described could be acted out and enriched. Since Scott’s Jerusalem was written between 1833 and 1834, the same time that Turner was working on Finden’s Landscape Illustrations of the Bihle (1832 - 1835), the artist probably based its design on a drawing by Sir Charles Barry, the 4 source of all his views of the Holy City. Among the literary works Turner illustrated, however, the most effective in illuminating the elements of both continuity and change among biblical ethos, and the philosophical and literary traditions of which Romantic writers were legatees, was John Milton’s Poetical Works for which Turner produced seven designs (nos. 71 - 77, pi. XllI). 128 Biblical Allusions Milton’s Poetical Works Several illustrated editions of Milton’s Paradise Lost (1674) and many paintings that the epic poem inspired appeared in the Royal Academy exhibitions during the first half of the nineteenth centu- ry. These works show the degrees to which their creators were moved by the pictorial elements within Milton’s opus. Turner, however, in a perspective lecture, suggested that the poem was unsuitable for pictorial representation and warned that “poetic descriptions most full, most incidental, and displaying the great- est richness of verse is often the least pictorial, and hence hasty practice or choice, to use a more harsher term, are lead astray.” The verse quotations and titles that Turner took from Milton’s work and attached to his paintings even further fueled the “Miltonic controversy.” The quotations, taken from Paradise Lost, Morning Amongst the Coniston Fells and Cumberland, exhibited in 1798, and from Harlech Castle, Tregwvn Ferry- Summer’s Evening and Twilight, exhibited in 1799, have very lit- tle in common with the paintings. Furthermore, a quotation from Thomson’s Seasons would probably have more successfully accompanied The Deluge, exhibited in 1813, than Milton’s words that Turner chose. Similarly, the oil painting, exhibited in 1834, has much more to do with the second part of its title, Cornwall, than with the first part, St. Michael’s Mount, and its association with Milton’s Lycidas. The seven vignettes for the Poetical Works would remain Turner’s ultimate statement about Milton. W. G. Rawlinson describes the septet in terms that may obscure the flaws within the artist’s visual interpretation: Here, Turner’s imagination had full scope, and his Mustering of the Warrior Angels (no. “I] and The Fall of the Rebel Angels [no. 72] are magnificent in concep- tion. But, as was often the case with Blake in his treat- ment of similar subjects, small faults of taste or of drawing in the figures greatly detract from their impres- siveness. The otherwise fine Temptation on the Pinnacle [no. 75] is spoiled by the appearance of the balancing in the central figure; in The Expulsion from Paradise [no. 73] the design is beautiful, and the vista of the Garden exquisite, but again the figures are unsatisfactory. Still, as works of high imaginative power, the ‘Milton’ plates seem to me to deserve a higher place than Mr. Ruskin and others have accorded them. Especially it should be borne in mind that it is by the engravings rather than by the drawings, that all Turner’s vignettes should be judged. 129 Chapter Three Mustering Of The Warrior Angels And there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon: and the dragon fought against his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation i 2: 7 - 9 By choosing this dramatic scene as a subject for his vignette. Turner offers a pictorial tribute to Milton’s poetic imaginations. The gathering of Satan’s rebels and God’s warriors described in Paradise Lost is taken from no direct source in the Bible, although its context is a reference to the War in Heaven and Fall of the Rebel Angels (Revelation 12: 7 - 9). In the engraving (no. 71), the artist depicts and unites the poetic and dramatic details of two distinct events. Both groups of warriors move within a circular pattern surrounding a central configuration of lights, which may represent “the golden Lamps that burn nightly’’ {Paradise Lost V, 713 - 714). By that light, God viewed Satan’s nocturnal plans: the gathering of the rebels in the northern spheres of darkness. The symbolism in Turner’s use of dark and light is clear. The orbs of light and their reflective relationships with the shields, held by lines of angels at the top, for example, suggest the bright march of God’s warriors to confront the rebel angels, represent- ed, at the bottom, more as shadow than as substance. In relating light to God’s army, and shade and darkness to Satan’s, Milton’s poem becomes a vehicle by which Turner expresses the ideas of Revelation and the underlying conflict between good and evil in terms of light and darkness. Furthermore, the light and dark stage on which the struggle takes place resembles the pictorial renderings of pseudoscientific descriptions of the universe, and fantastic neoclassic monuments of Turner’s contemporaries. 130 Biblical Allusions NO- 71 J.M.W. Turner Mustering of the Warrior Angels (Paradise Lost. Book V} 1835 line engraving on steel 83 X 95 engraved by R. Brandard Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv ^31 Chapter Three The Fall ol the Rebel Angels Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven onto the earth, and the angel was given the key to the shaft leading down to the Abyss. When be unlocked the shaft of the Abyss, smoke rose out of the Abyss like the smoke from a huge furnace so that the sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss... Revelation 9: i - 2 In this engraved illustration (no. 72) for Milton’s Paradise Lost, Book VI, Turner depicts the defeated rebel angels falling into a dark, hurning pit below. Although Milton drew from Revelation 12: 7 - 9 in describing the fall, his depiction of the pit comes from Revelation 9: 1 - 2 and 20: 1 - 3. Turner alters some details of this biblical event, but generally conforms to the biblical narrative. For example, he hands the third and final day of the battle and its victory to a glorious and powerful Christ, rather than to Michael: “So spake the Son and into terror chang’d his count’- nance too severe to be beheld and full of wrath bent on his Enemies. ..Grasping ten thousand Thunders....” Turner, always amenable to Milton’s muse, employs light and dark in this engraving to translate the vision of victory into pictorial forms. Through the vague, heavenly landscape in the upper half of the oval composition, light and lightning stream forward, consuming all evil substance. Turner shows rebel angels as silhouettes falling into a burning lake, an image he probably found in the text of Book I, 180 - 190. But, if Turner follows Milton’s text, he also views the fall of the angels in a larger, bib- lical context. In the upper left, as a personal, topographic and biblical reference, he adds a rainbow, a symbol of hope for humanity in its struggle with Satan and his fallen angels. Engraver Edward Goodall’s son told Turner’s biographer W. G. Rawlinson that, “when his father was engraving this plate, Turner wrote across the upper part of the proof ‘put me in innumerable figures here’”" — another device by which Turner conveyed a sublime atmosphere. LH 133 Biblical Allusions NO. 7i J. \1. W. Turner The Fall of the Rebel Angels (Paradise Lost, Rook VI) 1835 line engraving on steel 79 X 113 engraved by E. Goodall Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv Chapter Three The Expulsion from Paradise The Lord therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Ederi; and he stationed the cherubim to guard the way Genesis Genesis 3: 23 - 24 is the biblical source for the Expulsion from Paradise, which ends Paradise Lost. Milton adds his own realis- tic details to the biblical narrative: the gate in the east and the archangel’s companionship (Paradise Lost, XII, 625 - 649). As seen in this engraving (no. 73), Turner adapts the gate as a pic- torial framework, surrounding it with baroque cherubim who guard the flaming sword and the entrance, through which he gives us an open view of the Garden of Eden. This panorama of the Garden is found in many of Turner’s open air studies, such as his Rhine watercolors of 1819 and 1834. and the fiery revolving sword, to the tree of life, y . 23 - 24 In the foreground, Michael, sword in hand, escorts Adam and Eve out of Eden, following the serpent, the symbol of evil. This motif, which appears throughout Turner’s biblical works, is especially significant to this subject. The appearance of the ser- pent marks the beginning of the three final books of Paradise Lost, after the account of the fall at the end of Book IX. Throughout the last three books, Adam’s understanding of God’s curse on the serpent is a leitmotif that creates suspense and a sense of dramatic unity. Turner’s inclusion of the symbol of the snake expands the scope of the scene to refer to the perspective of time and its promise of salvation. 134 Biblical Allusions ‘“'O- 73 |. M. W. Turner The Expulsion from Paradise (Paradise Lost, Book XU 1835 line engraving on steel 83 X lil engraved by E. Goodall Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv 135 Chapter Three The Temptation on the Mountain Then he took him up and showed him all the Kingdom of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, T shall give you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this may be yours if you worship me.’ Jesus said to him in reply, Tt is written: you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone you serve.’ Luke 4: 5 - 8 In Paradise Regained, Milton divides the account of the Temptation on the Mountain into two scenes. First, in Book III, Satan offers Christ the glory of all kingdoms, save Rome, which the poet reserves for Book IV. Turner’s pictorial description of the scene (no. 74) shows the earthly realm offered to Christ, in the form of a sublime landscape. He perhaps meant to equate the scattered hills with the cities described in detail by Milton, as is suggested by notes Turner later made on an engraver’s proof of the image, such as “Cities of the Plain,” “City on the Rock,” “City not walled,” “Domes and towers of Ninevah, and wall’d found N. B. City most made out nothing, like a Spire.” On the right he notes, “Another city wall.” These written remarks seem only to refer to Milton’s detailed poetic descriptions and Turner’s own topographical interests, without bearing specific relation to the engraving itself, for no cities can be discerned on the hilly plain. Turner’s barren landscape derives from the Miltonic and biblical messages he wishes to convey, namely the insignificance of Satan’s earthly kingdom offered to Christ, as well as for any man wishing to attain the Kingdom of Heaven. The snake, already seen as a symbol of evil, enhances the didactic approach of this engraving. Placed in the left fore- ground, it extends the immediate scene of temptation on the right, and situates the scene within a broader poetic and biblical context, recalling the earlier temptation of Eve and the conse- quent loss of Paradise. 136 Biblical Allusions NO- 74 J. M. \\'. Turner The Temptation on the Mountain (Paradise Regained, Book III) 1835 line engraving on steel 83 X 92 engraved by S. Cousen Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Avi\ 137 Chatter Three The Temptation on the Pinnacle Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple, and said to him, Tf you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you’; And 'with their hands they will hear support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered him; 'Again, it is written again, you shall not put the lord, your God, to the test.’ Matthew 4: 5 - 7 Looking to the biblical story of Satan’s temptation of Christ atop the Temple in Jerusalem,'’ Milton adds a dramatic ending to his narrative in Paradise Regaitted by returning to the image of Satan’s fall from light; “Tempt not the Lord thy God, IJesus) said and stood. But Satan smitten with amazement fell. ..Fell whence he stood to see his Victor fall (Paradise Regained, IV, 560 - 571).’’ Turner’s literal approach to Milton’s text is evident in his representation of this scene, which describes the significant moment of the biblical story within the pictorial patterns of tra- ditional art and architecture. In this engraving (no. 75), Christ is poised precariously on the pinnacle of a Gothic tower, bright against the shadows of Old Jerusalem. Christ’s figure, reminis- cent of Gothic manuscript illumination in its upper central posi- tion and serpentine shape, is surrounded by baroque angels, ready to carry him away. On the right, Satan spreads his bat-like wings and falls away from heaven and a New Jerusalem. This engraving is Turner’s most religious representation, if his method of pictorial interpretation is understood to be a tribute to Milton’s poetry, taken from the Christian artistic tradition. 138 139 Biblical Allusions NO. 75 J. M. W. Turner The Temptation on the Pinnacle (Paradise Regained, Book IV) 1835 line engraving on steel 66 X 114 engraved by F. Bacon Collection of .Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv Chapter Three Campbell’s Poetical Works The many accounts of Turner’s undertaking to illustrate Ccimpbell's Poetical Works reveal abundant but sometimes con- tradictory detail. The biographies of the primary members of the project. Turner, Thomas Campbell and the engraver Edward Goodall, differ not only in their explanations of the financial aspects, hut in their interpretations of Turner’s attitudes, toward both his own work and Campbell’s. The earliest account, which also seems to he the most reli- able, appeared in The Life and Letters of Thomas Camphell (1849), edited by William Beattie. According to Beattie, (It) was agreed that, in the imitation of Rogers’ ‘Italy’ [the new volume of Campbell’s poems] should be brought out with all the attractions that tasteful designs and finished engravings could bestow. Mr. Turner was commissioned to furnish the designs, Cfoodall the engravings with such a combination of talent, the prof- its on an ‘Illustrated Edition’ promised to indemnify the author for all expenses and leave a handsome surplus at his disposal — The cost of the drawings and engravings, as he calculated would amount to £800, but in the end, I believe, it much exceeded that sum."* In his biography of Campbell, Beattie asserts that the poet was eager to sell Turner’s drawings immediately after he had made use of them. Campbell’s letters to one Mr. W. Gray leave no doubt that the painter bought back the drawings the same year he delivered them to the engravers. “My illustrated edition was no sooner out,” writes Campbell to Gray, November 28, 1837, than I found myself in a mess about disposing of the drawings, for which I paid, in all, to Turner, £550 — i.e. twenty-five guineas for each, and £25 for a thousand proof prints. I had been told that Turner’s drawings were little blank notes, that would always fetch the price paid for them, but when I offered them at £300, 1 could get no purchaser. One very rich and judicious amateur, to whom I offered them, said to me, — ’I have no intention to pur- chase drawings because they are worth so little money, that I should be sorry to see you sell them for as little as they are really worth. The truth is that fifteen out of the twenty are but indifferent drawings. But sell them by lot- tery and either Turner’s name will bring you in two hun- dred guineas or Turner himself will buy them up.’ I went to Turner, and the amateur’s prediction was fulfilled, for Turner bought them up for two hundred guineas." In 1861, Turner’s first biographer, Walter Thornbury, provided two versions of the episode in his work The Life of f. M. VT. Turner. These accounts contradict not only that of Campbell’s biographer, but even each other. The first relates mat- ter-of-factly that “Campbell, the poet, desired Turner to make a set of drawings for an edition of his work, for which Campbell’s circumstances did not allow him to pay, and he had the honesty to confess that it would be inconvenient for him to discharge the debt, on which Turner, with kind sympathy, told the poet to return the drawings, which he afterwards gave to a friend.” The second, which follows immediately, as Thornbury himself points out, “certainly reflects more credit on the painter than on the 140 Biblical Allusions poet.” According to Campbell’s friend, Cyrus Redding, Campbell said, ‘1 have just played |Turner| a trick. ..I had gone to a great expense for Turner’s drawings to be engraved for my illustrated poems...! was also told not to mind the expense, the drawings would sell, being Turner’s, for what I had paid for them, as soon as the engravings were finished. They could not be disposed of at any- thing like the price. It was said they were not his best style; in short I thought I should be compelled to keep them. One day I saw Turner, and told him what had occurred, and that I had hoped to make something of them. I added, in a joke, that I believed I should put them up for auction. Turner said, feeling annoyed, I suppose, at my remark, “Don’t do that; let me have them.” I sent them to him accordingly and he has just paid me for them.’ ...[Redding] could not help saying ‘Turner does this because he is so tender about his rep- utation; he will not have them in the market.’ Campbell had just before been censured for lending his name to books written by other people which struck me when I made the remark. The poet however, was too joyous about his bargain to apply the remark to himself. I have since thought whether Turner did not do this with a desire to befriend Campbell. He was just the character 14 to do such an act silently and bluntly. Last and most confusing was the account the son of engraver Edward Goodall. Although it conflates the agreements between Campbell and Turner and between Rogers and Turner, it shows the artist to be a man of compassion. “He told me,” wrote Rawlinson, when repeating the younger (ioodall’s that Moxon, the publisher, had agreed with his father, the engraver, that Turner should be given a commission of twenty or more drawings for which he was to receive thirty pounds apiece, or somewhat about £700 in all. Goodall was to engrave the plates, and instead of being paid for them in the usual way, he and Moxon were to divide all the costs and risks, and to share the profits equally. A draft agreement to that effect was shown by Moxon to Goodall, and later on, the latter signed the document without reading it. Afterwards he discovered that it differed materially from the original proposal as he had understood it and that it would probably mean a very serious loss to him. For several weeks the house- hold was in great anxiety, and Goodall, who was on very friendly terms with Turner, was advised to ask the painter to cancel the commission for the drawings. He did so, but at first met with refusal; shortly afterwards. Turner called at Goodall’s house late one night and would come no further than the hall. On Goodall’s going to him, he said: ‘You ask me too much — see what a sum I lose.’ Goodall replied: ‘You could always get equally good pay for your time, Mr. Turner.’ Turner said ‘He did not see that he could be expected to forego such a sum.’ Then Goodall’s little daughter happened to come into the hall, and going up to Turner asked him ‘if he was the great Mr. Turner?’ Turner was pleased and said ‘I am Mr. Turner, don’t know about great Mr. Turner,’ and patted her head. Finally he agreed to give up the commission and said: “This is the greatest act of generosity I have ever done in my life.’ In the end he made the drawings, charged the publisher £5 each for the loan of them, and retained them in his possession until his death.”' 141 version. Chapter Three Sinai’s Thunder when the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; hut let not God speak to us or we shall die.’ Moses answered the people, ‘Do not he afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fears upon you, lest you should sin.’ Exodus 20: 18-21 In the fourth and final vignette for Campbell’s Pleasures of Hope, Turner depicts the poet’s biblical metaphor in which Nature announces the appearance of God, “Like Sinai’s Thunder pealing from the cloud.” In both the watercolor (no. 76, pi. XIII) and engraving (no. 77), God appears amid the clouds, accompanied by symbols of eternity and the Trinity. Below, Moses and his brother Aaron stand before the people (and the “two tables of the testimony”), as described in Exodus 20 . Turner adds imaginative intimacy to both the biblical story and Campbell’s poem. Here, his more familiar ship motif is moon-shaped, and becomes an iconographical symbol for Eternal Hope. This symbol, although present in Campbell’s imagery, is more prominently employed by the poet William Blake (1757 - 1827) as the vehicle by which Noah and his fami- ly were saved from the Deluge. Turner places the “Moony Ark” beneath Sinai’s Thunder, visually combining the “Ark of Noah” and the “Ark of the Covenant.” Blake, who had already associ- ated these themes in his writings and illustrations, conveys the interrelation between “Hope” and “Imagination” which are the primary motifs from Campbell’s Pleasures of Hope. Like the “Ark of Noah,” which was able to supersede the waters of materialism, so the “Ark of the Covenant” is able to supersede the Law — thus both represent the same struggles within man, those between Vision and Materialism, Eaith and Law: “Man is the ark of God; the mercy seat is above, upon the ark. Cheribums guard it on either side, and in the midst is the holy law; man is either the ark of God or the phantom of the earth IS of the water. By employing the ark at the end of the Ghost of Abel, Blake demonstrates God’s proclaimation of Mercy in a manner similar to that used in the story of the Deluge by the symbol of the Rainbow: In Thy Covenant of the Lorgiveness or Sins: Death, O Holy! Is this Brotherhood. The Llohim saw their Oath Eternal Lirst: they rolled apart trembling over the Mercy Seat, each in his station fixt in the Lirmament 19 by Peace, Brotherhood and Love. 142 With The Evening of the Deluge (no. 7) and The Morning After the Deluge, Turner raises to a higher level of conscious- ness the opposing attitudes that ran parallel throughout his life. The threatening nature of The Evening of the Deluge reflects his pessimistic belief that humanity was doomed as a result of its inner weakness. In the complimentary The Morning after the Deluge, he manifests, with equal conviction, the belief that the creative process, an artistic view of life, can give new life to man. Jack Lindsay, having studied Turner’s complex association with “hope,” wrote a careful conclusion to the meaning of the work in the artist’s Eallacies of Hope: “The idea which carries from first to last is that the hopes of man are betrayed, not by some whim of fate, but by an inner weakness or contradiction. From one angle then his poem appears as a counterblast to Campbell’s poem. But 1 think the matter cannot be amply left at that; for Turner’s creative activity itself, the picture to which each tag is attached, reveals powerfully a belief in art’s integra- tive faculty. Thus, Turner accepts one half of Campbell’s views, but rejects his concept of history as too simple and optimistic. He feels the need to add to the pictorial harmonies a statement of disharmony and conflict.” ^ Plate xiii, page zx M Biblical A l i. 11 _ J. .\1. \X' Turner Sinai's Thunder The Poetical Works 1836 engraving in printed book 73 X 102 engraved by K. (loodall Collection of Mordechai Omer, Tel-Aviv Notes CHAPTER ONE ^ “Historical Pictures” was the term Turner used while cataloging his work for the Liber Stiidioriim. - Morning Chronicle, April 28, 1 800. ^ Finberg 1939, p. 66. ^ This description relates to The Tenth Plague of Egypt in St. James's Chronicle .May 18 - 20, 1802. ^ Burke 17.57, p. 13. The first elaborate study on Turner and the sublime was done by Gage 1965; the last study was by Wilton 1981. See also Lawrence Gowing, “Turner and Literature” Times Literary Supplement, July 10, 1981. ^ Livermore 1957, p. 84. See also Robertson 1908, in which James Thompson refers to a plague in Egypt in The Seasons (“Summer,” line 1052 ff.) and in a note to the third stanza of the Ode on Oeolus's Harp. ^ For the role of Thomson’s poem in the eigh- teenth and early nineteenth centuries see Omer 1976c, and this catalogue pp. 36 - 37. ^ For Wilson-Turner relationship see Beckett 1947. 9 Ziff 1963, pp. 316. Finberg 1909, IXVL, Dolbadern Sketchbook p. 118. * * Ibid., p. 1 14a. 12 Ziff 1963, p. 316. 1^ Finberg 1909, XLVL, Dolbadern Sketchbook, p. 79. 14 Ibid., LXXl-LXXX. l-l Ibid., LXXII, Studies in the Louvre Sketch Book. 16 Ibid., p. 31a, 30a, 30, 29d. 12 Ibid., p. 28. 1 H Ibid., p. 60a. 1^ Finberg 1939, p. 101. 20 Finberg 1909, LXXXI, p. 42 - 43, 152 - 153. 21 Ibid., CXIX, -R. 22 Wilton 1980, p. 136 22 Butlin and Joll 1977, p. 25, no. 35. 24 Wilton 1980, p. 133. 22 Finberg 1909, XC. Studies for Pictures; Isleworth Sketchbook, p. 56a, p. 79a. 2^ Thornbury 1861, p. 497. 22 1 Samuel 27: 8 - 20. Butlin and Joll 1977, p. 52. 2^ John Landseer, Review of Publications of Art, 1808, II, pp. 166 - 167. 29 Finberg 1939, p.78. 20 This work is now in Southampton Art Gallery, England. 2 1 Also known as The Egremont Seascape, now in Petworth House. 22 Joseph Farington, Diary 1793 - 1821, type- written, in the British Museum, Section of Prints and Drawings. 22 Ziff 1983, p. 316. 24 See, for example, Veronese’s Christ and the Woman of Samaria (1580) in the .Museum of Art History, Vienna. 22 Finberg 1939, XLVI, p.l88. 26 Ibid., XLVI, p. 1 14a. 22 Finberg 1968, p. 74. 211 Ibid. 29 The Deluge is also a dominant image in Thomson’s The Seasons, providing the term for the biblical Deluge, as well as a metaphor for the overwhelming power of natural forces brought by God to challenge the limits of humanity. Thomson equates the force that impels the change of the four seasons with the biblical deluge, and, with them, four elements: water (Spring), sunlight (Summer), moonlight (Autumn), and air (Winter). From the actual biblical deluge, represented as water in Spring, moonlight in Autumn, and air in Winter. Thomson’s use of the deluge as an image to convey the possible extension from the particu- lar to the heavenly, from the immediate scene in nature to the eternal world of God’s nature, is similar to Turner’s use of actual landscapes in paitings of biblical and mythological subjects. Turner’s method of representation allows him to see the universal deluge, as a massive ship- 144 wreck and suggests, as do the images in Thomson’s poem, a dialectical relationship by which the actual can become the infinite: a par- ticular human experience can be a metaphor for the total order formed only in God’s perfection. For more details see Omer 1976b, pp. 99 - 104. Medwin 1913, p. 255. Milton’s exploration of the scriptural treat- ment of Noah and the Flood consumes two hundred lines. Of those. Turner chose to por- tray the moment of Adam’s vision at which the storm comes to climax (verses 738 - 745). In comparison, the Bible recounts this stage of the Deluge in just the barest statement of fact; “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the sec- ond month, the seventh day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the window of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 6: 10 - 11 ).’ Lindsay 1966, p. 50. This verse, composed by Turner for his poet- ical work Fallacies of Fiope, accompanied the painting Shade ami Darkness in the Evening of the Deluge when it was exhibited together with Light and Color (Goethe's Theory)- the Morning After the Deluge - Moses Writing the Books of Genesis in 1843 at the Royal Academy. The following verse, also from Fallacies of Hope, accompanied the latter paint- ing: “The ark stood firmly on Ararat; th’return- ing sun/exhaled earth’s humid bubbles, and emulous of light/Reflected her lost forms, each in prismatic guise/Hope’s harbinger, ephemeral as the summer fly/Which rises, flits, expands, and dies.’ Finberg 1939, p. 390. See Lawrence Gowing, “Turner’s Pictures of Nothing” Art News, Vol. 62, October 1963, pp. 3 1 33. CHAPTER TWO * In the first half of the nineteenth century, for- mer James .Mitan pupils William Finden (1787- 1852) and his younger brother Edward Francis Finden (1791 - 1857) owned and operated one of the principal printing establishments in London. Two of their major publications included many designs after Turner; Landscape Illustrations of the Life and Works of Lord Byron (1831 - 1834) contained twenty-six such plates and Landscape Illustrations of the Bible, contained twenty-five. Their other notable works included a series for the Gallery of Braces (1832 - 1834): Byron’s Beauties, (1834); Landscape Illustrations to the Life and Poetical Works of George Crabbe { 1834) and Portraits of the Female Aristocracy of the Court of Queen Victoria (1838 - 1839). The ambitious undertakings The Royal Gallery of British Art and The Beauties of Thomas Moore caused the Finden brothers great losses from which they never recovered. Their bankruptcy, which was announced in The Times, May 1842, caused Turner great concern. He had completed the watercolors Oherwesel and Lake Nemi for pub- lication in the Royal Gallery of British Art. - For Turner’s illustrations to Byron, see Omer 1975 b. ^ Finden 1 836, 1, p 2. ^ See A. Burgess and F. Haskell, The Age of the Grand Tour, New York, 1 967. Finden 1836, 1, p. 2. ^ This book, edited by the widow of Claudius James Rich, was published in London in 1836. Rich visited ancient Nineveh early in November 1820. He became ill as a result of this trip and died a year later at age thirty-four. ^ In Linden’s Bible, nine of the engravings were after the Reverend .Master and four, after Arundell. ^ Captain Fitzmaurice participated on eight sketches, five of which he engraved himself. .Major Felix drew the sketches of Wilderness of Sinai and Non-Amon. ^ Charles Robert Cockerell (1788 - 1863) was a leading classical archaeologist and one of the most revered figures in nineteenth-century British architecture. Turner received the largest assignment (twenty-six sketches); the rest were elaborated by other artists such as J. D. Harding (1798 - 1863) (twenty), David Roberts (1796 - 1864) (twelve), Clarkson Stanfield (1793 - 1867) (twelve), Sir Augustus Wall Callcott (1779 - 1 884) (eleven), etc. > ' Ruskin 1904, vol. Xlll, p. 534. Ruskin was most critical of this painting for its inaccuracies of the landscape: “This Fifth is a total failure; the pyramids look like brick- kilns, and the fire running along the ground like the burning of manure” (Ruskin 1904, vol. Ill, p. 240). This subject exists today only as an engrav- ing prepared for the Liber Studiorum (pub- lished on April 24, 1812). Turner repainted the original oil, probably about 1808, changing it into a “subject from the Runic Superstitions,” possibly suggesting the story of Saul and the Witch of Endor. Ruskin 1904, vol. Ill, p. 240. E.xhibited with the text from .Matthew 27: 24. Exhibited with the text from John II: 13 - 25. * Exhibited with no actual title but the text is from Daniel 3: 26. According to George Jones’ manuscript reminiscence, now in the Ashmolean .Museum, Oxford, the choice of this subject for this picture was the spoils of a friendly competi- tion between Turner and Jones. 145 See Butlin and Joll 1977, vol. I, p. 168. Gage 1972, p. 53. Quoted in Daffrone 1883, p. 68. -* Ruskin 1904, vol. XIII, p. 448, n. 2. Hakewill 1820. See also Rawlinson 1908 - 1913 vol. I, pp. 78 - 86. Byron's Life and Works, see Omer 1975b, pp. 26 - 29. 24 Ruskin 1904, vol. XIll, p. 42. 2-5 The Reverend Kingisey, in a letter to Ruskin (preserved at Brantwood), quoted in Ruskin 1904, vol. VII, p. 191. 2^Ruskin 1904, vol. VII, p. 192. It is interest- ing to note that Ruskin gives different biblical references in support of this thought, which opposes the Law to the Gospel. For the idea of the Law and Sinai, he mentions Hosea 8: 5 and 15; for the idea of the Gospel and Lebanon, he also quotes Hosea 14; 4 - 6. 22 Ruskin 1904, vol. XIII, p. 447. 2^ Ibid. 2*^ For Ruskin’s classified lists of Turner’s effects of light see Ruskin 1904, vol. Ill, pp. 421 - 423. 20 Ruskin 1904, vol. Ill, p. 340. 21 Ibid., p. 383. 22 Ruskin 1904, VII, pp. L54 - 155. 22 Ruskin 1904, III, pp. 382 - 383. 24 Ruskin 1904, XIII, p. 447. 22 Cunningham, 1843, p. 205. 2^5'itzhak Schattner’s book, Mappat Eretz Yisrael Vetoldoteyha, (Mossad Bialik, Jerusalem, 1951), provides a basis for this sum- mary. 22Barry 1867, p. 28. CHAPTER THREE ' Omer 1975b. 2 Quoted in Keynes 1 966, p. 777. 2 Quoted in Medwin 1913, p. 255. 4 See chapter 2. 2 British Museum, MS 14, Box 1. p. 24. ^ Rawlinson 1908 - 1913, vol. I, p. Iviii. ' Paradise Lost-, VI, p. 824 - 836. ^ Quoted in Omer 1975b. ^ The principal biblical source for Milton’s three temptations of Christ and their order of presentation is in Luke 4: 1-13. Beattie 1849, p. 194. 1 ' Ibid., p. 237. 12 Ibid., p. 232. 12 Ibid., p. 233. 14 Ibid. 12 Rawlinson 1908 - 1913, vol. 1, pp. lix - lx. 1^ Campbell 1837, p. 31. 12 “Hope and Imagination,” wrote Campbell, “are inseparable agents — even in those con- templative moments when our imagination wanders beyond the boundaries of this world, our minds are not unattended with an impres- sion that we shall some day have a wider and more distinct prospect of the universe, instead of the penal glijiipse we now enjoy” (Campbell 1837, p. 22). 1 H Quoted in Keynes 1966, p. 82. 1*^ Ibid., p. 781. 211 Lindsay 1966, p. 45. 146 Abbreviations PRIMARY SOURCES Campbell 1837 Thomas Campbell. The Poetical Works. London: .Moxon, 1837. Finden 1836 Landscape Illustrations of the Bible, etc. Engraved by W. and E. Finden. London: John Murray, 1836. .Milton 1835 Milton's Poetical Works. London: Macrone, 1835. .Milton 1932 John .Milton. Paradise Regained. London: Scholartis Press, 1932. ■Milton 1935 John Milton. Paradise Lost. New York: Odyssey Press, 1935. Senior 1990 Donald Senior, ed. The Catholic Study Bible. The New American Bible. New York: O.xford University Press, 1990. TURNER’S BIBLICAL AND POETICAL INSPIRATIONS Beattie 1849 William Beattie, ed. The Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell. Vol 111, 1849 Beckett 1947 R. B. Beckett. ‘“Kilgarren Castle,’ a Link Between Turner and Wilson,” Connoisseur, CXX (September, 1947), pp. 10-15. Burke 1757 Edmund Burke. Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. London, I 757. Butlin and Joll 1977 Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll. The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. London: Yale University Press, 1977. Cunningham 1843 A Cunningham. Life of Sir David Wilke. London, 1843 Daffrone 1883 J. Daffrone. The Works of J. M. W. Turner, R. A. London, 1883. Einberg 1909 A. J. Einberg. A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest. London: The British .Museum, 1909. Einberg 1939 A. J. Einberg. The Life of J. M. VC Turner, R. A. O-xford: Clarendon Press, 1939. Einberg 1968 A. J. Einberg Turner's Sketches and Drawings New York: Schocken Books, 1968. Finley 1972 Gerald E. Finley. “J..M.W. Turner and Sir Walter Scott: Iconography of a Tour.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXV (1972), pp. 359 - 385. Finley 1973a Gerald E. Finley. “Turner and Scott’s Poetry: New Evidence.” The Burlington Magazine, LXV (1973), pp. 740 - 742. Finley 1973b Gerald E. Finley. “Kindred Spirits in Scotland: Turner and Scott.” Connoisseur, vol. 183, no. 738 (1973), pp. 238 - 242. Finely 1980 Gerald E. Finley. Landscapes of Memory, Turner as Illustrator to Scott. London: Scholar Press, 1980. Gage 1965 John Gage. “Turner and the Picturesque.” Burlington Magazine, CVII (January 1965) pp. 16 - 26; (February 1965) pp. 75-81. Gage 1972 John Gage. Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed. New York: Viking Press, London 1972. Gage 1974 John Gage. “Turner and Stourhead: The .Making of a Classicist.” The Art Quarterly, XXXVl (1974), no. 1, pp. 59 - 87. Gage 1980 John Gage, ed. Collected Correspondence of J.M.W. Turner. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980. Gage 1981 John Ciage. “From Words to Pictures.” Times Literary Suplement. No. 4061, 30 (January, 1981), pp. 119-120. Gage 1987 John Gage, A Wonderful Range of Mind. London: Yale University Press, 1987. Gordon 1971 Catherine Gordon. “The Illustrations of Sir Walter Scott: Nineteenth Century Enthusiasm 147 and Adaptation.” lotirnLil of the Warburg and Coiirtaiild Institutes, XXXIV (1971), pp. 297 - 317 . Hakewill 1820 |. Hakewill. Picturesque Tour in Italy 1818-20. London: Hurst and Robertson, 1820. Hale 1961 |.R. Hale. “Rogers and Perfectionist.” Huntington Library Quarterly, XXV (1961). Holocomb 1969 Adele M. Holocomb. “A Neglected Classical Phase of Turner’s Art; his Vignettes to Rogers’ Italy.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXII (1969), pp. 405 - 410. Holocomb 1971 Adele M. Holocomb. “Turner and Scott.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXIV (1971), pp. 386 - 396. Keynes 1966 Geoffrey Keynes, ed. Blake Complete Writings. London: 0.xford LJniversity Press, 1966. Lindsay 1947 jack Lindsay. “Keats, Coleridge and Turner.” Life and Letters, 54, no. 121 (September, 1947), pp. 199 - 201. Lindsay 1966 Jack Lindsay, ed. The Sunset Ship: The Poems of f.M.W. Turner. London: Scorpion Press, 1966. Livermore 1957a Ann L. Livermore. “Turner and Music.” Music and Letters, XXXVIII (1957), pp. 170 - 179. Livermore 1957b Ann L. Livermore. “J.M.W. Turner’s LInknown Verse-book.” The Connoisseur Year Book (1957), pp. 78 - 86. Med win 1913 Thomas Medwin. The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. H. Boxton Foremen, ed. London, 1913. Omer 1975a Mordechai Omer. “Turner and ‘The Building of the Ark from Raphael’s Third Vault of the Loggia.” The Burlington Magazine, CXVll (1975), pp. 694 - 702. Omer 1 975b Mordechai Omer. Turner and the Poets. London: Greater London Council, 1975. Omer I 976a Mordechai Omer. Turner und die Dicht Kunst. Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, 1976. Omer 1 976 b Mordechai Omer. The Iconography of the Deluge in English Romantic Art: with special reference to William Black and J.M.W. Turner. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Norwich: University of F.ast Anglia, 1976. Omer 1976c Mordechai Omer. The Seasons: Illustrations to James Thomson's Poem I7B0- 18.10, London: The Victorian and Albert Museum, 1976. t)mer 1981 Mordechai Omer. Turner and the Bible, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1979. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1981. Omer 1985 Mordechai Omer. Turner: Die Landschaften Der Bibel. Wien: Gondrom Verlag, 1985. Omer 1988 Mordechai Omer. “Turner’s Biblical Deluge and the Iconography of ‘homo bulla.’” Comparative Criticism, Vol. 5, Cambridge University Press (1988), pp. 129 - 152. Pointon 1970 Marcia R. Pointon. Milton and English Art. Manchester University Press, 1970. Robertson 1 908 J. Logie Robertson, ed. Complete Poetical Works of James Thompson. London: Oxford Univeristy Press, 1908. Ruskin 1904 John Ruskin. The Works of John Ruskin. Library Fdition, Vols. 1 - Xlll. London: G. Allen, 1904. Ruskin 1865 John Ruskin. Modern Painters. Vols. I - IX. New York: J. Wiley &: Son, 1865. Shanes 1990 Flric Shanes. Turner's Human Landscape. London: Heinemann, 1990. Tinker 1938 Chauncey Brewster Tinker. Painter and Poet, Studies in the Literary Relations of English Painting, Harvard University Press, 1938. Wilton 1979 Andrew Wilton. The Eife and Work of J.M.W. Turner. London: Academy FMition, 1979. Wilton 1981 Andrew Wilton. Turner and the Sublime. The British Museum, 1981. Ziff 1963 Jerrold Ziff. “Turner and Poussin,” Burlington Magazine (July 1963) pp. 315-321 Ziff 1964 Jerrold Ziff. “J. M. W. Turner on Poetry and Painting.” Studies in Romanticism, vol. Ill, no. 4 (Summer, 1964), pp. 193-215. Ziff 1 964 Jerrold Ziff. “John Langhorne and ‘Turner’s Fallacies of Hope.’” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XX VII (1964), pp. 340 - 343. 148 TURNER AND ENGRAVING Bell 1903 C. F. Bell. “Turner and His Engravers.” In Charles Homes, ed.. The Genius of J.M.W. Turner, London, 1903, p. E.I - E. XXIV. Gage 1969 John Gage. “Turner and Engraving.” Colour in Turner: Poetry and Truth. New York: Praeger, 1969, pp. 42 - 52. Goodall 1902 Frederick Goodall. Reminiscences of F. Goodall R.A., London, 1902. Hayden 1906 Arthur Hayden. “The Line Engravers After Turner.” Chats on Old Prints, London, 1906, pp. 219 - 227. Hermann 1990 Luke Hermann. Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J. M. W. Turner. New York: New York University Press, 1990. Holocomb 1970 Adele .\L Holocomb. “The Vignette and the Vertical Composition in Turner’s Oeuvre.” The Art Quarterly, XXXIII (1970), pp. 16 - 29. Rawlinson 1908 - 1913 W.G. Rawlinson. The Engraved Works of J. M. VV. Turner. Vols. 1. & II London, 1908 - 1913. Thornbury 1861 Walter Thornbury. The Life of J. M. W. Turner. London, 1861. Wilkinson 1982 Gerald Wilkinson. Turner on Landscape, The Liber Studiorum. London: Barrie & lenkins, 1982. 149 ^ I'';,: ?*' .-. ;.f ''i