Four Vedute of the Bay of Naples, early 19th Century

Four landscapes of the Bay of Naples.
Italy.
ca. 1816-1820.
h. 22,8 in. ; l. 32,6 in.

“Grandiose entrance : we go, an hour during, down to the sea along a wide road cut into the tender rock on which the city is built.”

This is how Stendhal describes his arrival to Naples in early 1817. Since he followed the coast from Terracine to Naples, he must have passed near Pausilippe : the view Stendhal describes must have been very similar to that of the first of these four landscapes.

Stendhal spent most of his time at the San Marco theater, at balls, courting countesses and marchionesses. He visited Pompeii, but did little to describe the rest of the Bay of Naples, that we see the three other views : views on Vesuvius off the Gulf of Naples and the coastline that goes from Vesuvius to Sorrento.

Many landscapes of Naples were painted for European artists, collectors, scholars and writers who, like Stendhal, went on their Grand Tour and traveled beyond Rome to study not only Roman but also Greek antiquities.

Although unknown, our painter, most likely from a Neapolitan school of the early 19th century, has shown in these views a great concern for perspective, that is often lacking on many Grand Tour landscape paintings.
He has succeeded in paintings the shadows scrupulously, as to preserve the unity of each composition. That the pink light of dawn and dusk can then bathe these views in a romantic nostalgia, where fishermen, horsemen, goatherds, washerwomen and boatmen, live peacefully together. At the same time, Naples had barely emerged from a time of civil struggle, and of what was perhaps the most tragic years in its history. In sixteen years, Naples had seen a revolution, some coups, brutal reforms and a long occupation.

We can discern the Villa Floridiana, to the west of the Certosa, within the large park that would gradually be surrounded by buildings over the course of the 19th century. Due to this detail, it is likely that these paintings were made in the late 1810s.

Some cracks on the paint and faint restorations.

Sources

Stendhal, Rome, Naples, Florence, Paris, 1988.

Pierre Milza, Histoire de l'Italie, Paris, 2013.