Sir William Hamilton's Vesuvian apparatus

Apollo, May, 2004 by Bent Sorensen

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The position and shape of the different elements in Latapie's drawing shows quite clearly that the apparatus was set up for a painting showing the eruption in 1771. His truncated, awkward sketch of the reverse side mirrors to some extent the corresponding details at the right-hand side of plate XXXVIII in the Campi Phlegraei (Fig. 3). But the apparatus could probably be used with various interchangeable paintings, for example of the eruption of Vesuvius in October 1767, mentioned above by Elisabeth Duchess of Beaufort.

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The 1771 eruption was not a major event, like those in October 1767, August 1779 and June 1794, but it was striking because of the formation of a spectacular perpendicular lava-fall. The eruption began on 1 May, when lava gushed from a fracture some two-hundred metres below the summit on the north flank. Hamilton described the plate in his Campi Phlegraei, as follows: 'A Night view of a current of lava, that ran from Mount Vesuvius toward Resina, the 11th of May 1771. When the Author had the honor of conducting Their Sicilian Majesties to see that curious phenomenon'. He explained the most important point in the engraving as: 'The spot from whence the lava issued. It ran into the Valley, between Somma and Vesuvius, disgorged itself into a hollow way, formed a beautifull Cascade of fire of more than 50 feet perpendicular fall, and escaping pure and in its fluid state from under the Scoriae, fell into the hollow way, and produced the finest effect, that can possibly be imagined. The original Drawing for this Plate was taken that night on the spot'. The spectacular lava cascade continued unabated until the end of May 1771. A broader and more decorative view of the eruption, drawn according to an inscription after nature on 14 May 1771, but not showing the perpendicular lava-fall was made by Pierre Jacques Volaire (Fig. 6). (16) His pictorial curiosity was however not matched by a preoccupation with naturalistic fidelity: several replicas of this painting exist in which he varies even the shape and size of the cone of Vesuvius.

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The Vesuvian apparatus was probably set up in a darkened room, where the spectator would see the image shimmering in the reddish glow from the lava, lit up by the uninterrupted torrent of liquid fire in the cascade. The sporadic outbursts from the crater throwing out fire, and the intermittent bursting of lava through the side of the mountain, would create the impression of an incessant surge of flames, molten rock and billowing smoke, punctuated by the unexpectedly startling noise of explosions.

Whether Hamilton's animated painting--which in 1767 he had enthusiastically alleged: 'gives a much better idea of Vesuvius, than is possible to be given by any other sort of painting'--actually lived up to his expectations is questionable. In 1794 he described one of the most formidable eruptions known in the history of Vesuvius. He 'engaged signor Gata, successor to the late ingenious Mr. Fabris, to make an exact drawing of it, which he did with great success', showing its distinctive ash column (Fig. 7), but he did not mention again the paintings in transparent colours nor reiterate his 1767 claim. (17) He may have recognised, after thirty years of observation, that there was a limit to what might be shown, even with an animated painting.