Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri

Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Tate, London 2014
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Date
c.1760 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 47 x 72.4 cm
Imperial: 18 1/2 x 28 1/2 in.
Accession Number
N00304
Wilson Online Reference
P93A
Description
The view is taken from a classic vantage point west of Pozzuoli, looking south across Lake Avernus, the Lucrine Lake behind and the narrow isthmus dividing the latter from the Bay of Baiae. In the background are the island of Capri, and on the extreme left, Vesuvius.
Exhibited
Bangor 1925 (64); Machynlleth 1937 (6); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (90); London, Accademia Italiana delle Arti 27 October - 27 November 1990, In the Shadow of Vesuvius, Views of Naples from Baroque to Romanticism (60, repr.); London 1993 (75, repr.); London 1996-97 (100)
Provenance
Sir John Pringle sale, Christie's 20 April 1843 (49), bt Norton (£78.15.0); probably acquired through the dealer Norton by Robert Vernon; presented by him to the National Gallery 1847; transferred to Tate 1955
Subject
Lake Avernus, to the west on Naples, near Pozzuoli, lies in the volcanic region of the Phlegraean ('Burning') Fields. In classical mythology this was the site of the Underworld or 'Hades'. The entrance to Hades was said to lie in a nearby grotto, inhabited by the prophetess known as the Cumaean Sibyl. In Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, the Sibyl helps Aeneas, the Trojan prince, to enter Hades. There his father's ghost foretells his destiny as the founder of the Roman nation. Such associations made Lake Avernus a major attraction for landscape artists and travellers on the Grand Tour. The semi-ruined Temple of Apollo on the eastern shore of the lake to the left, was believed in Wilson's day to have been dedicated to Juno or Proserpina. In the left foreground is the cavern of the Cumaean Sibyl.
Related Drawings
D257 Lake Avernus, Monte Nuovo, the Island of Capri and Part of Baiae, The British Museum
Related Prints
E85 Joseph Clayton Bentley after Wilson, Lake Avernus, The British Museum
E85A Joseph Clayton Bentley after Wilson, Lake Avernus, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Works by Other Artists
[1] J.M.W. Turner, Aeneas and the Sibyl, Lake Avernus, c. 1798, Tate, London (N00463)
[2] Giovanni Battista Lusieri, View of Lake Averno, watercolour, 1786, Christie's New York, 29 January 2015 (112)
Critical commentary
D257 or another version of it served as the basis for this painting. Robin Hamlyn noted that the association of the area with Apollo, to whom, on first landing in Italy, Aeneas vowed to build a temple, was reinforced by Wilson's showing the sun setting behind the temple; also that in the distance, beyond the Lucrine Lake, the presence of vessels pulled up on the shore almost seems a conscious evocation of the moment when Aeneas's fleet landed.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
304
Bibliography
Davies 1946, pp. 176-77, cat. 304; WGC, pp. 82, 195, pl. 72a; Herrmann 1973, p. 60, pl. 57; Hamlyn 1993, pp. 65-66; Solkin 1982, pp. 203-204
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
More Information
Between 1752 and 1756 Wilson visited the area two or three times, working mainly out of doors around the Bay of Pozzuoli and at Lakes Agnano and Avernus.
Condition/Conservation
Dimensions framed: 77 x 101.5 cm
Updated by Compiler
2021-03-05 00:00:00