The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius: Foreunner of Romanticism

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, Pierre-Jacques Volaire, 1777

Pre-romanticism paintings like Volaire’s, The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, displays images of sublimity through light, colors and movement. These Sublime images directly display the wildness and the magnitude of nature. While other artists of the pre-romanticism movement use sublimity none use sublimity quite like Volaire does. Volaire’s paintings are unique because they feature dynamic paintings of volcanoes, movement, and feature brilliant colors which are aesthetically different from his peers of the mid 18th century and his paintings are a forerunner to the Romantic movement.

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, painted in 1777 by Pierre-Jacques Volaire. The time that this painting was painted makes this work a part of pre-romantic movement. Romanticism is the period between classicism and impressionism. The brush strokes in romanticism became less looser and less precise. (“Pre-Romanticism, 2013). Therefore Romanticism is as Charles Baudelaire describes,

“Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling." (“Charles Baudelaire Quotes,” 2015).

While the term romanticism looks like it would focus on scenes of love, romantic artists of this time focused on glorification. This glorification of scenes is meant to cause intense emotion, such as in Volaire’s piece, The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, is supposed to leave you with in awe at the eruption of a volcano and glorifies the complex concepts of heroism, survival, despair, (Richards, 2015). Specific details in the people’s faces convey to the onlooker that the situation they are is dire one. Such as the group of women on the side of the bridge closest to the ship, their faces are contorted in such a way that conveys pain, sorrow, and fear. The artist emphasizes survival and heroism by using light and darkness to highlight specific heroic elements. The artist highlights running coach horses in the foreground with light from a torch. Also a Kingly statue is highlighted in the light of the explosion. This figure is not turned to face the entrance of the bridge but is faced in the direction of the volcano. This Kingly figure looks as though he is awe of the scene he is looking upon. This is glorifies that even a king, (symbolistically the greatest of all us,) is in awe of nature’s majesty.

Mt. Vesuvius

Romanticism focuses on current events. Volaire uses both of these in his paintings. During the time when, The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was painted the actual Mt. Vesuvius was very active and erupted frequently. (Ball, 2015) Mt. Vesuvius would have been a current to everyone in Europe and the Mediterranean. It would have been natural to have been interested in volcanoes and paint them; And volcanoes became the focus of many of Volaire’s paintings. It would have been like someone in Portland painting rain. Volaire’s piece would have been like an 18th century ABC news for the people of Europe who saw his paintings. People who look at this painting often feel like they might be standing on a higher ridge watching people fleeing from buildings being consumed by red-hot fiery lava. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius would have let the people of the 18th century see the chaos of volcanoes and the glory and ferocity of nature.

Looking towards the East Window by J. M. W. Turner

The Notion that nature is terrifying is important to Volaire’s work and romanticism. While Volaire is technically a part of the pre-romantic movement, his paintings helped define romantic themes. The picturesque movement before the romantic movement, (mid eighteenth century,) consisted mostly of serene scenes of nature. Picturesque is derived from the Italian pittoresco meaning “from a picture,” and depicted simple and serene scenes of nature. Volaire made art history when he painted of volcanoes. Paintings of volcanoes convey excitement that you might not find in the picturesque paintings. (“American Scenery,” 2015)Volaire’s volcano scenes illustrate people in the act of running from raging volcanoes, hills on fire, and the sky ablaze with ash and spouts of lava. Comparing picturesque paintings like Looking towards the East Window by J. M. W. Turner (1794) and The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius or any other of Volaire’s paintings would be like comparing a golf game to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment.)

Another important part of Volaire’s piece is sublimity. Provided that Sublimity is considered to also be a part of the romantic movement, the word sublime means awe inspiring or impressive. And sublimity in art is meant to take scenes and certain aspect in nature and emphasize the magnificence and the magnitude of that scene and artists who practiced sublimity attempted to give the same feeling in the painting when you experience sublime in nature. (Hayfield, 2009)

“ To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt.” -Eleanor Catton

Sublimity is often achieved by perspective, or by drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point. (Hayfield, 2009) Volaire in The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius executes sublimity by making the volcano a large focus and making the people in the foreground almost miniscule. The moon is also drawn very small compared to the volcano. The moon being a small dot of light compared to large volcano making a lot of light provides a contrast to the volcano. Using both of these techniques, Volaire emphasizes the grandeur of nature and makes humanity look insignificant to the majesty of nature.

Volaire’s work attests to how color affects our emotions. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius uses rich colors such as oranges, yellows, whites and reds to illustrate the color of the magma, however the picture does not simply illustrate a volcano. Colors like oranges and reds are directly tied to emotion.

“In general, colors comprised of longer wavelengths, like red, are more stimulating to the nervous system than the colors of shorter wavelengths, like green and blue (Graham, 2000; Mahnke, 1993). Psychiatric wards in the earlier part of the twentieth century stumbled on this phenomenon accidentally, when patients who had been deprived of the color red (which was, at that time, believed to induce madness) obtained bits of red string. They became more animated, increased their activity and work output, and demanded more red items (Emery, 1929; Lukins & Sherman, 1941)...most researchers reason that different colors hold different associations for people, triggering memories and emotions...color variety is psychologically most beneficial. It is not just that one color is better than another for a specific purpose, that one may be considered psychologically exciting or another calming, but a variety of visual stimulation and change in atmosphere is required in establishing a sound milieu.” (Withrow, 2004)

Volaire uses this “color variety” to establish a sound milieu, (balance of environment,) within his own painting. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, creates balance of nature with the scene of the moonlit bay and the volcano. The brilliance and excitement of the volcano are illustrated with bright colors such as red and oranges while the bay scene of the same painting uses blacks and greys to create a stark contrast of tranquility to the volcano. The yin and yang balance that Volaire creates within the painting shows his artistic brilliance. He not only can paint picturesque moonlight bays, but he can extrapolate and make the painting dynamic and beautiful by also illustrating the ferocity of a volcano of nature next to the serene bay. Having multiple scenes within one painting creates profundity and the eyes of onlookers spend more time looking at the painting; they first look at individual part and then they look at how each part fits within each other.

"John the Baptist" 

Volaire uses color to create movement. In art this technique is called Sfumato, or the gradation of light and shadow in oil paintings. Leonardo Da Vinci originally used this technique in paintings like John the Baptist, to transition the eye from one part of the painting. Sfumato Sfumato helps the artist tell a story in his painting, giving the onlooker a place to start and a natural progression of places to go. (Sfumato, 2015) In The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, the onlookers eyes is first drawn to the oranges and bright colors of the volcano; then your eye follows other warm colors in painting in the village, the hillside, and then to fleeing wayfarers. Then they are drawn to the cooler light that is given off by the light of the moon and then the eye remains in the darker parts of the painting such as in the details of the ship or the shore.

Volaire’s genius made for beautiful paintings that still inspire viewers today. Using sublimity Volaire’s pre romantic paintings defined and paved the way for future romantic painters such as Thomas Hill or J. M. W. Turner. Volaire’s uniqueness extended past his fascination of volcanoes, but to all of the techniques he used, such as sfumato, color variety, and balance. Modern people often think that we have in some way conquered nature with our concrete jungles; however The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius teaches it’s viewers the beauty, ferocity, magnificence of nature and shows us how insignificant the plights of man are compared to the rest of the universe.

Works Cited

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