Michael Wutky

Essay:

The Rococo painter Michael Wutky was famous for his Italian landscapes, not least his depictions of the Eruption of Vesuvius, which he is believed to have experienced first-hand.

Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna starting in 1755, Wutky was originally a history painter. He travelled to Italy in 1771 where he stayed for six years mainly in Rome and Naples. In Rome, he was commissioned by Marcantonio Borghese to work alongside Jakob Philipp Hackert and Gavin Hamilton on the decoration of the Villa Princiana.

In Naples Wutky was commissioned by Sir William Hamilton to paint eruptions of the Vesuvius and it is for these fiery views, often painted at night for dramatic effect, which Wutky is best known. He is documented on one expedition to Vesuvius, with Sir William Hamilton in 1779, after the great eruption of the volcano in that year.

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This nocturne of the lava flow around Mount Vesuvius is a typically dramatic and awe-inspiring view by Michael Wutky. Thick impasto is used to describe the boiling lava and serves to outline the Grand Tourists and their guides in their precarious positions on the rocks of the Phlegrean Fields.

The Enlightenment led to increased fascination with volcanoes, particularly amongst gentlemen natural philosophers in France, Britain, and Germany. Naples became a popular destination for tourists and artists alike towards the end of the eighteenth century when Vesuvius went through several decades of high volcanic activity. Here they could experience the sublime combination of terror and awe of a lava flow from a (usually) safe distance.

Wutky painted the greatest volcanologist of the age, Sir William Hamilton, visiting Vesuvius, albeit from much further away (see Christie's, London, 8 Dec. 2017, lot 186). It is likely that he had Hamilton and other English and European tourists in mind when he painted the figures in the present picture. To the lower left a guide in a white shirt holds up a burning torch and gestures at the lava flow, keeping a respectable distance with his gentlemen and lady charges. Meanwhile, another group of dilettanti stand higher up the rocky slope, seemingly in danger of being engulfed by the flames and heat. Their elegant tricorn hats, coattails and walking sticks are clearly visible in profile against the fires of Vesuvius.

A similar painting by Wutky can be seen at the Louvre (RF 1998 37).

Provenance:

Private Collection, Italy.