Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851)
The Campo Santo, Venice
1842
Oil on canvas, 62.2 x 92.7 cm
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo
Venice is radiant, if somewhat shabby, in Joseph Mallord William Turner’s view north across the Venetian Lagoon. The city is to the left and the cemetery island of San Michele (the Campo Santo of the title) is on the right. Lacking impressive monuments, this unimposing locale was not often depicted. For Turner the cemetery, a fairly recent addition to Venice, may have stood as a fitting symbol of the slow demise in the 19th century of this once powerful imperial city. Suggestions of decline may be intended by the floating debris and the lowly (though picturesque) boats in the foreground. (TMA)