View of the Gulf of Pozzuoli from Solfatara

1803

Philipp Hackert

(German, 1737–1807)

Culture

Germany, 19th century

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

Framed: 146 x 190 x 14 cm (57 1/2 x 74 13/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Unframed: 119 x 166.5 cm (46 7/8 x 65 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1983.14

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Location

201 French Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture

Did You Know?

While in Naples, the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe took painting lessons from Philipp Hackert; their meetings were documented in Goethe's travelogue Italienische Reise (Italian Journey).

Description

Attracted to its dramatic vistas, volcanoes, exotic peasants, and classical ruins, landscape painters of the 1700s and 1800s flocked to the countryside around Naples. This view looks west toward the Gulf of Pozzuoli from just above the Solfatara, an area of volcanic steam vents. The ancient town of Pozzuoli, where the apostle Paul landed on his way to Rome, lies in the distance. Hackert's attention to detail and rendering of form with extreme lucidity is characteristic of German Romantic painting.