Oil paint on canvas
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Joseph Mallord William Turner
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Decline Carthaginian Empire 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
Carthage
Carthage
Carthaginian Empire, decline, circa 146 BC
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
classical
classical
column
countries and continents
crowd
decay
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
figure
fine arts and music
groups
historical: imagined views
history
monuments
objects
people
periods and styles
places
river
sculpture, classical
stair / step
sunset
times of the day
townscapes / man-made features
Tunisia
universal concepts
water: inland
waterfront
<p>Exhibited two years after France’s defeat at Waterloo by British and allied forces, this luminous harbour scene would have been understood as a reflection of contemporary European politics. It shows the sun setting on Carthage, North Africa, the centre of the most powerful empire until the rise of ancient Rome. Turner compares warring Rome and Carthage to the rival empires of Britain and France. The scene is inspired by the work of 17th-century painter Claude Lorrain (known as Claude). Its pair, showing the sun rising on the Carthaginian Empire, hangs alongside a painting by Claude in the National Gallery, as Turner requested in his will.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
1 October 2007 – 6 January 2008
2008-01-06
2007-10-01
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-10
Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, USA)
http://www.DallasMuseumofArt.org
23 June 2008 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
2008-06-23
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2007-10-01
JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
14 March 2012 – 5 June 2012
2012-06-05
2012-03-14
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2012-03-14
Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude
Loan-out
14 April 2012 – 9 February 2020
2020-02-09
14 April 2012 – 9 February 2020
2020-02-09
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Clore Introduction: Ambition and Legacy
Collection based display
6 April 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
6 April 2020
2020-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-04-06
Clore 104
Collection based display
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 107
Collection based display
The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire ...
support: 1702 × 2388 mm
frame: 2150 × 2840 × 200mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>Exhibited two years after France’s defeat at Waterloo by British and allied forces, this luminous harbour scene would have been understood as a reflection of contemporary European politics. It shows the sun setting on Carthage, North Africa, the centre of the most powerful empire until the rise of ancient Rome. Turner compares warring Rome and Carthage to the rival empires of Britain and France. The scene is inspired by the work of 17th-century painter Claude Lorrain (known as Claude). Its pair, showing the sun rising on the Carthaginian Empire, hangs alongside a painting by Claude in the National Gallery, as Turner requested in his will.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>135. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-decline-of-the-carthaginian-empire-n00499" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00499</span></a>]<b> The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire-Rome being determined on the Overthrow of her Hated Rival, demanded from her such Terms as might either force her into War, or ruin her by Compliance: the Enervated Carthaginians, in their Anxiety for Peace, consented to give up even their Arms and their Children</b> Exh. 1817
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (499)
<br/>Canvas, 67 × 94 (170 × 238·5)</p>
<p><b>Inscr.</b> ‘AMILCAR K [?] ...’ on architrave of farther portico on left, ‘HANN [IBAL] ...’ at top of altar on right, and ‘AL CAMMAE SICHII [?]’ on lower part of same altar broken by angles of its octagonal plan.</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (2, ‘The decline of Carthage’ 7'11" × 5'7 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1929.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1817 (195); Turner's gallery 1835; exchange loan to the Louvre, Paris, 1950–59; <i>Berlioz</i>, Victoria and Albert Museum 1969 (379, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (165, repr. in colour p. 35).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1843, 1860, and 1857 (1903–12, iii, pp. 241, 267, 298; vii, p. 437–8 n.; xiii, pp. 124–5, 157); Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 180, 300; 1877, pp. 128, 343, 435; Hamerton 1879, pp. 164–5, 197; Monkhouse 1879, p. 93; Bell 1901, p. 99 no. 137; Armstrong 1902, p. 219; Whitley 1928, p. 272; Davies 1946, p. 185; Finberg 1961, pp. 247–8, 330–31, 477 no. 197; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 34; Ziff 1964, pp. 25–7, pl. 4; Lindsay 1966, pp. 153–4; Lindsay 1966<sup>2</sup>, p. 49; Gage 1969, p. 90; Reynolds 1969, p. 94, colour pl. 70; Gage 1974, pp. 75–8; Kroeber 1978, pp. 152–6, pl. 50; Paulson 1978, p. 169, pl. 50; Topliss 1978, pp. 86–8, pl. 2; Wilton 1979, pp. 157, 211, pl. 167; Wilton 1980, pp. 71, 75–6; Paulson 1982, p. 64; Kitson 1983, p. 11, pl. 16.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Despite the slight difference in size this picture is the counterpart to <i>Dido building Carthage; or the Rise of the Carthaginian Empire</i> of two years earlier (No. 131 [<span>N00498</span>]). Turner's verses for the catalogue stress the significance of the setting sun:
<br/></p>
<p>‘* * * * * *At Hope's delusive smile,<br/>The chieftain's safety and the mother's pride,<br/>Were to th'insidious conqu'ror's grasp resign'd;
<br/>While o'er the western wave th'esanguin'd sun,
<br/>In gathering haze a stormy signal spread,
<br/>And set portentous.’</p>
<p></p>
<p>Ruskin, who recognised the two Carthage pictures as companions, quoted the text from the R.A. catalogue and added, ‘This piece of verse, Turner's own, though, it must be confessed, not particularly brilliant, is at least interesting in its proof that he meant the sky—which, as we have seen, is the most interesting part of the picture—for a stormy one’. He comments further on the verses in <i>Modern Painters</i> v: ‘And remember also, that the very sign in heaven itself which, truly understood is the type of love, was to Turner the type of death. The scarlet of the clouds was his symbol of destruction. In his mind it was the colour of blood. So he used it in the Fall of Carthage. Note his own written words...’
<br/>
<br/>John Gage (1974) has pointed out that such comparisons of the rise and fall of empires, and their application to the contemporary situation, were a commonplace in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as in Oliver Goldsmith's <i>Roman History</i> and Edward Gibbon's <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>
(both writers had been Professors of Ancient History at the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>). The then wellknown guide to Italy, J. C. Eustace's <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>Classical</span></a> Tour through Italy</i> of 1813, even draws the parallel between Carthage and England. Claude's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> had been interpreted in a similar way, the two pictures at Longford Castle having been <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraved</span></a> in 1772 as ‘the Landing of Æneas in Italy: The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/allegory" title="Glossary definition for 'Allegory'"><span>Allegorical</span></a> Morning of the Roman Empire’ and ‘Roman edifices in Ruins: the Allegorical Evening of the Empire’. Turner's two large Claudian harbour scenes seem therefore to have been deliberate essays in this tradition. Ruskin saw the pictures as companions but Thornbury appears to have been the first to draw attention to their message.
<br/>
<br/>Contemporary reviews did not note any connection between the two pictures though, with rare exceptions, they were high in praise of both. The <i>Repository of Arts</i> for June 1817 even praised Turner's verses: ‘The awful description of the setting sun, so exquisitely described by the poet in the three last lines of the extract above, has been chiefly attended to by Mr. Turner; and never has so bold an attempt been crowned with greater success... The colouring of every part of the picture is full of extreme richness... It is impossible to pass over the execution of the architectural parts of this picture: they are drawn with purity and correctness; the Grecian orders are carefully preserved, and the arrangement of the buildings in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a> is formed with so much adherence to geometrical rule, that the eye is carried through the immense range of magnificent edifices with such rapidity, that we entirely forget the artist, and merely dwell on the historic vision. Mr. Turner has here embodied the whole spirit of Virgil's poetical description of the event, its awful grandeur, and solemnity of effect.’ The <i>Annals of the Fine Arts</i> wrote, ‘Mr. Turner has only one, but that one is a lion ...excelling in the higher qualities of art, mind and poetical conception, even Claude himself.’
<br/>
<br/>In an issue of the <i>Annals</i> earlier the same year the critic John Bailey had already said that ‘I wish the Directors of the British Institution would purchase it. When shall we see a National Gallery, where the works of the old masters and the select pictures of the British School, may be placed by the side of each other in fair competition, then would the higher branches of painting be properly encouraged?’ Could this have been the inspiration to Turner to bequeath two of his paintings to hang next to two Claudes in the National Gallery? In his first will, drawn up in 1829 five years after the National Gallery first opened at 100 Pall Mall, Turner left the two Carthage pictures to be ‘placed by the side of Claude's “Sea Port” and “Mill”’; later, in 1831, <i>The Decline of Carthage</i> was replaced by the earlier painting <i>Sun rising through Vapour</i> (R.A. 1807; see No. 69 [<span>N00479</span>]).
<br/>
<br/>There are <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> sketches in the ‘Yorkshire I’ sketchbook (CXLIV-101 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a> (repr. Reynolds 1969, pl. 68) and 102 verso) and perhaps also in the ‘Hastings to Margate’ sketchbook (CXL-73 verso), and studies for the architectural setting in the ‘Hints River’ sketchbook (CXLI-32 verso and 33).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture Carthage Carthage Carthaginian Empire, decline, circa 146 BC cities, towns, villages (non-UK) classical classical column countries and continents crowd decay emotions, concepts and ideas features figure fine arts and music groups historical: imagined views history monuments objects people periods and styles places river sculpture, classical stair / step sunset times of the day townscapes / man-made features Tunisia universal concepts waterfront water: inland