The countryside represented is generally taken to be near Naples, owing to Farington's comments when he saw the view in Richard Entwhistle's collection at Rousham in 1808. The coast of Baiae, just north of Naples, was renowned in the 18th century for the remains of antique temples, palaces and gardens. The picturesque elements of such ruins had been enhanced by the earthquakes common in the region. Cicero, Pliny, Julius Caesar, Augustus and Pompey all had villas at Baiae and its coastline, the Gulf of Pozzuoli, had been celebrated by Homer in the Commerians and Virgil in the Aeneid.
