The eruption of Mount Vesuvius

The expansion of scientific curiosity and knowledge in the Age of Enlightenment led to a considerable degree of fascination with volcanoes, particularly in France and England. This contemporary fascination is recognisable in Edmund Burke's concept of the sublime, in William Hamilton's Observations on Mount Vesuvius of 1772, and in the work of the geologist, Whitehurst. The volcanic activity of Vesuvius made it a popular subject for artists throughout the late eighteenth-century, of whom the two most illustrious were Joseph Wright of Derby and Pierre-Jacques Volaire, the latter who witnessed eruptions of Vesuvius in 1774 and 1771.