A huge city like Rome is composed of mainly simple houses, but turn the corner, and you can find elaborate marble buildings that hide interesting finds. On a corner right past the Pantheon, you’ll find the Chiostro el Bramante, a monastery dedicated to providing cultural services to the area. The 500-year-old building is now home to an exclusive collection of paintings by Joseph Mallord William Turner, a Romantic British painter.
The museum takes you through six chronological sections, guiding you through his artistic evolution. As you walk through the rooms, you can see how he refines his skills and applies his experimentation.
Romanticism is the style of art focused on nature, emotion, and abandoning conventional rules. This style became popular in the 18th century as a reaction to the rigidity of Neoclassicalism. Turner embodies this style through his watercolors and oils by painting gorgeous, sweeping landscapes.
The artist was constantly traveling; his paintings depict England, France, Germany, Italy, and so much more of Europe. However, until Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, Turner couldn’t leave England. Therefore, he traveled the island extensively and got to know it intimately.
Walking around the exhibit was Alex, a British college student traveling to Rome. Her pride for her country shone through as I asked her questions about this artist.
She explained that “I love this artist because there are so many landscape paintings of England, and its exciting to recognize a building you know well in a museum painting.”
“I am from Durham, England, and it is interesting that the second room of the exhibition includes a painting of the Durham Cathedral, but brighter and from a more interesting perspective.”
In 1804, he opened his own gallery to exhibit his work, both oils and watercolors. The fact that he wanted to elevate watercolors to the status of oil was revolutionary. Watercolor was seen as less important than oil because it was deemed that way by Renaissance painters. This goes back to that main Romantic tenant of ignoring established rules and to create a personal style.
Turner set the tone for Impressionist artists, like Monet or Cézanne, by not focusing on the symmetry, lines, or form. He was remarkably talented because when you look at his amorphous shapes you can still tell what it is. He blends colors so well it is hard to tell where a color starts or begins. The blurred the lines between colors, creating a harmonious composition.
His paintings reflect a deep interest in color. He includes stark contrasts to add depth that pulls you in. However, the darkness isn’t meant to enhance– the brightness is meant to enhance the darkness. Looking at that deep chiaroscuro inspires a deep awe called the sublime, which Turner actively pursued in his painting.
Turner’s alleged last words were, “The sun is God”. Even if this were true, it accurately sums up Turner’s oeuvre. His paintings will leave you lost in the sunlight, which guides you to the darker half, which will also engulf your imagination.
Turner was one of the first to paint “en plen air”, or outdoors; as a result, his paintings were bright and focused on capturing the beauty of the moment. His landscapes are also bright because of his heavy use of the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow.
The artist is a prototypical example of Romanticism because of his representation of nature. The natural world is shown as a dangerous place because it is vast and the swirling colors are daunting. The humans and buildings he draws are very small compared to the portrayal of trees, overgrown grass, and plants.
Not only is Turner important because his paintings are beautiful, but also because he inspired future beautiful paintings. His watercolors were a watershed moment in art history. Suddenly, watercolors were a respected art form, and artists like Monet and Frankenthaler followed. Turner emphasized the importance of depicting weather depictions and the effect of light and color. If there were no Turner, there would be no Monet.
Turner also influenced Mark Rothko, a beloved Abstract Expressionist. Turner pioneered the idea of creating landscapes from the point of view of the viewer, not through the eyes of another person or character. Rothko appropriated this idea by removing the middle man, and what you see is what you get. They both made paintings that seem to have so much depth that you could fall into them.
Throughout the gallery, his attention to detail softens, leaving just free-handed strokes that fill the scene with action. Although there isn’t much concrete movement, action is abstracted in small, gestural marks. One of his earlier works is the Goring Mill and Church. This is representative of his style at the time because the background is out of focus, only leaving the buildings and foreground detailed.
Later, Turner abstracts everything and simply puts a tsunami of paint on paper to produce something gorgeous. For example, Brent Tor and the Lydford Valley, Devon depicts an abstracted version of a valley. He pays less attention the details, and more attention to the emotion evoked by the movement created by the brush strokes.
Joseph Mallord William Turner made art that appealed to the masses. Whether you like bright or dark art, English or Italian landscapes, watercolors or oils, there is something for you. Turner was born a working class man and died a working class man. His work is void of pretentiousness; he just put broad brush strokes on paper, and managed to create masterpieces.
The Chiostro del Bramante sells tickets for 9 euros, and is completely worth it for the chance to get to observe the private collection of a genius.