Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1769
Medium
aquatint with engraving
Dimensions
image: 43.1 × 54.5 cm · sheet: 49 × 62.7 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Robert Hays Gries
Accession Number
1959.294
Tags
male
About this artwork
With the eruptions of Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius in the 1700s, volcanoes entered the scientific and popular imagination of Enlightenment Europe. Scientists and philosophers theorized the origins of these spectacular displays; curious tourists visiting Italy wrote home with accounts of burning rivers and destroyed towns. The rediscovery of the ancient sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii, buried by Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 CE, added further fuel to the fire. Attempting to capture the drama ...