Title: Modern Rome

Artist: William Turner

Title: Modern Rome—Campo Vaccino Date: 1839 Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 Chelsea) Medium: Oil on canvas Description Ten years after his final journey to Rome, Turner envisioned the Eternal City through a shimmering veil of memory and imagination. Baroque churches and ancient monuments in and around the Roman Forum seem to dissolve in iridescent light shed by a moon rising at left and a sun setting behind the Capitoline Hill at right. Amidst these splendors, the city's inhabitants carry on with their daily activities. Untouched since it left Turner’s hands, the painting is in a remarkable state of preservation. It is shown here in the frame originally chosen by the artist.