Due to high visitor numbers anticipated this weekend, 22 and 23 January, we advise booking tickets for Grinling Gibbons and John Nash exhibition entry. If you do not have a ticket booked we may not have capacity to allow entry to the exhibitions. The restaurant will be walk up service only, no table bookings.

Pierre-Jacques Volaire 1729 - about 1792

An Eruption of Vesuvius by Moonlight

Details

Artist

Pierre-Jacques Volaire 1729 - about 1792

Title

An Eruption of Vesuvius by Moonlight

Date

1774

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

130 x 260 cm

Reference

CVCSC:0259.S

Collection

Naples

Status

On Display

License this work

Eruption du Mont Vésuve… sur le lieu par le Che. Vesuvius erupted several times in the 1770s – including 1774, the year of this painting. Despite its dangers, visits to view the eruptions became a key part of the itinerary for wealthy travellers undertaking the Grand Tour, and Volaire’s many views of the subject were popular souvenirs. Volaire’s figures bear witness to the contrasts of nature, from the dramatic power of the fiery volcano to the calm sea and silvery moonlight

Pierre-Jacques Volaire An Eruption of Vesuvius by Moonlight 1774 © Compton Verney