Éruption du Mont Vésuve de 1779 (Eruption of Mount Vesuvius of 1779)

Italy’s Mount Vesuvius, located near Naples, is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. Best known for its devastation of the ancient cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 CE, the volcano entered another active phase in the 18th century that included the relatively severe eruption of 1779 shown here. These spectacles of pyrotechnics have long held viewers in their thrall, and the subject offered printmaker Jean Baptiste Chapuy an opportunity to celebrate the capacities of aquatint to capture vivid contrasts of light and dark. A printmaking medium that uses nitric acid in combination with a powdered resin to imitate qualities of watercolors, aquatint had recently come into use as a means to create the sorts of dramatic tonal effects that Chapuy employs here.