28. Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
and Robert Dunkarton (1744-1811?)

The Temple of Minerva Medica

(click on image to print)
Turner & Dunkarton, The Temple

The Temple of Minerva Medica

Etching and mezzotint, 1811, from the Liber Studiorum, Finberg 23 iv/v, 207 x 290 mm. Fine, rich impression in sepia on thick wove paper with full margins; an indecipherable drystamp collector’s mark below the image. The structure erroneously identified as the Temple of Minerva Medica mentioned by Cicero, is actually a nymphaeum, an early Roman shrine dedicated to the nymphs. For Turner, it was a title and a touch of the antique in a campagna landscape. The structure, which survives today as a well-kept ruin, lacking its dome and its marble walls, once was in the country but is now almost completely surrounded by apartment buildings. Still, one more variety of beautiful landscape in Turner’s great study. Turner did the original drawing (though not from life) and etched the plate. Dunkarton added the mezzotint under Turner’s direction.

Inquire $500.00 Buy Now