Volcanoes, Artists & Antiquarians.
Between 1765 and 1794, Mount Vesuvius was subject to a series of spectacular explosions which in addition to scaring the locals, provided a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for painters. If visitors left Rome with the sight of St Peter’s in their mind’s eye, then Vesuvius was the equivalent in the Neapolitan peninsular. Many of these volcano painters moved in the orbit of Sir William Hamilton who published in 1776 the first part of his book on geology, Campi Phlegraei which contained hand coloured copper engravings after the pictures of Fabris mentioned previously. The plates range from views of Vesuvius to illustrations of lava samples collected by Hamilton himself on the slopes of the volcano. Of course the eruptions of Vesuvius were linked with the fate of Pompeii, but rather than the volcano destroying the town it ensured its immortality. Hamilton, dubbed the “Professor of Earthquakes” by Horace Walpole, probably revived volcanology and was instrumental in attracting many visitors to Naples who would undertake the perilous hike up the fire mountain. One of the most admired, Goethe, tried the ascent up the volcano only to be overcome with belching smoke and hot ash. Among the painters, one of Vesuvius’s most famous visitors was Joseph Wright of Derby who visited Naples between October and November 1774. Of the volcanic explosions, Wright declared “Tis the most wonderful sight in Nature” though he worried that his renditions of Vesuvius were slight and, literally, superficial. Instead of probing deep within the volcano Wright concentrated on the surface, the “epidermis” of the land, an approach that was consistent with the theorists of the picturesque like the cleric William Gilpin who never used the word “picturesque” to describe the inner quality of the earth. Wright was, however, aware of the new “connoisseurship of the earth” propounded by John Whitehurst who made illustrations of the structure of volcanic landscape and knew of the reactions deep down. There were many painters of the eruptions of Vesuvius, but after Wright the most prolific is probably the Frenchman Pierre Volaire from Toulon who specialised in night scenes and took advantage of the eruptions during his sojourn in Naples in 1769 (above). Compton Verney has some fine examples of Volaire’s sulphuric canvases; these were included in an exhibition on the theme of volcanoes in 2010.[1]
[1] Volcano: Turner to Warhol, Compton Verney, 2010.
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