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The title of this painting refers to Lord Byron's long, epic poem 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' ('Childe' is an archaic title for the son of a nobleman). Byron saw the remnants of Italy's past as profoundly poignant: the country had, in the intervening years, lost both its liberty and integrity, but was still breathtakingly beautiful.

Turner showed his painting with these lines from Byron's poem:

'...and now, fair Italy!
Though art the garden of the world...
Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
With an immaculate charm which cannot
be defaced'