Neapolitan School Mount Vesuvius, Bay of Naples

An original 1833 gouache painting, Neapolitan School, Mount Vesuvius, Bay of Naples.

This miniature gouache or 'guazzo' of the Neapolitan School is one of a pair that we have for sale showing the same Bay of Naples view with Vesuvius in different states of eruption (see stock codes JN-046 and JN-047).

This painting, intensely colourful and animated by small figures, is typical of the vedute style that flourished in Naples during this period to meet popular demand from wealthy Grand Tourists for souvenirs of the city. The anonymous artists of the Neapolitan School employed specific motifs and colours which today can be considered a unique, iconic visual language.

This view shows Vesuvius in an early state of eruption, bathing the scene in a warm pink light. Neapolitan fisherfolk are occupied in the foreground. Vesuvius as spectacle and its place in literary and mythological tradition dating back to ancient Rome, makes for a particularly powerful pictorial icon, appealing especially to the Romantic imagination of the early 19th century.