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Frederick Carl Frieseke
The Garden Parasol
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John James Audubon
Page from The Birds of America
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Mali, Bamana
Pair of Antelope Headdresses
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Jean-François Millet
Peasant Spreading Manure
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Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros
Crater of Popocatépetl
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Pierre-Jacques Volaire
The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
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Focus Works of Art
The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
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Pierre-Jacques Volaire
(French, 1729 - before 1802)
The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius,
1777 |
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The erupting volcano is the bright focus of Volaire's painting. Our eye moves from this hot explosion down the mountain in a zigzag motion, following the ooze of the molten lava. Our attention comes to rest on a village and port at the base of the volcano. Townspeople flee across a diagonal bridge to safety on the other side of the bay. This scurry of activity increases the drama of the event and connects us emotionally with the scene. The painting demonstrates Volaire's careful observation of the volcano's physical characteristics, as well as the human response to disaster.
Who was this made for?
Volaire created more than thirty scenes of Mt. Vesuvius for British travelers who traveled to Naples, Italy to visit the ruins of Pompeii and witness the awesome spectacle of the active volcano. These paintings, like today's picture postcards, were souvenirs of the travelers' visits to this popular destination. Some of them simply document the physical features of the erupting volcano, while others like this one represent the volcano's menacing effect on local townspeople. Volaire's painting was commissioned by a British patron, who also owned a large collection of ancient sculpture.
Why was the volcano so popular?
Mt. Vesuvius erupted periodically throughout the 1770s. Tourists, scientists, and artists traveled to Naples to marvel at and document this natural phenomenon. At the time, Enlightenment thinkers promoted the careful examination of nature in order to understand its awesome character and frightening potential. Visitors to Naples usually observed details of the volcano from a safe distance, removed from the heat and spew of the crater. However, a few like Volaire were brave enough to climb up the volcano to investigate and document the features of this fiery mountain.
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Below are suggestions for using the Focus Work of Art with students in the classroom. The activity and discussion ideas are listed in order of difficulty. The activity instructions and italicized discussion questions may be presented directly to students. The icons below each suggestion note the related subject area(s). Click on each icon to determine which subject area it represents. Browse the thematic Lesson Plans for more ideas on how to use this work of art and theme in the classroom. |
- Looking Questions
What does this painting tell you about a volcano? How does Volaire communicate the power of the volcano to the viewer? (scale, color, details of explosion, lava flow) How would our understanding of this event be different if Volaire had chosen a different point of view? What if he had placed the volcano in the middle of the painting?
 
- Warm and Cool Colors
Review the differences between warm and cool colors. Locate these colors on a color wheel. Choose one warm color in Volaire's Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Create a word wall that lists vocabulary that this color brings to mind. Do the same for a cool color in the painting. Compare these words. Choose one of these colors and write a poem about it using the most descriptive words on the word list.
- Reporter at the Scene
Pretend you are a reporter documenting this explosion. Interview residents fleeing the scene. Ask them to recount their experiences from the minute they first heard the explosion to the moment they reached safety. Encourage them to remember details about what the eruption sounded, felt, and smelled like. Write a newspaper article summarizing these firsthand accounts. Use the painting as your only source of evidence.
- Stages of a Volcanic Eruption
Review the stages of a volcanic eruption. Identify the stage of this eruption. What are some warning signs these people would have felt before the eruption? How might they have responded to these warnings? Write the story or draw a scene of what might have taken place two hours before the action in this painting. Do the same for what will take place two hours after the explosion. Compare these predictions as a class. As an extension, construct models of different stages of a volcanic eruption.
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