Gaspar van Wittel, called il Vanvitelli

(Amersfoort 1652/53–1736 Rome)
The Grotto of Pozzuoli with Virgil‘s Tomb, Naples,
oil on canvas, 75 x 99 cm, framed
Provenance:
Collection of Cardinal Annibale Albani (1682–1751), Palazzo Albani, Urbino;
and thence by descent;
with Cesare Lampronti, Rome, 2002;
Private European collection

Documented:
Oggetti di Pittura spettanti alla Ecc.ma Casa Albani, ed esistenti come appresso, che si giudicano pregievoli, e degni di conservarsi, a forme dell’Art.127 del Moto Proprio di Nostro Signore dei 6 luglio 1816, 1818, Archivio di Stato, Rome, b. 40, fasc. 107, no. 496 (as in Urbino, Palazzo Albani ‘Un Foro di montagna del medesimo [Vanvitelli]’);
Verifica dei quadri e dei libri esistenti nel palazzo Albani di Urbino effettuata a cura di F.R. Valenti per conto di S.E. Donna Antonietta Castelbarco Albani e di B. Liborio per conto di S.E. il Principe Agostino Chigi Albani con riferimento all’inventario della iscrizione della primogenitura Albani rinnovata nel 1835, 1852, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Archivio Chigi, 4525, no. 496 (as ‘Un Foro di montagna del med.o [Vanvitelli]’)

Exhibited:
Rome, Chiostro del Bramante, Gaspare Vanvitelli e le origini del vedutismo, 26 October 2002 – 2 February 2003, no. 73;
Venice, Museo Correr, Gaspare Vanvitelli e le origini del vedutismo, 28 February – 1 June 2003, no. 73;
Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, Ritorno al Barocco. Da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, 12 December 2009 – 11 April 2010, no. 1.199.

Literature:
L. Laureati, Un cardinale e un pittore, Annibale Albani e Gaspar Van Wittel: una ‘villegiatura’ urbinate e una raccolta di vedute, in: Giuseppe Cucco (ed.), Papa Albani e le arti a Urbino e a Roma 1700–1721, exhibition catalogue, Urbino/Rome 2001, p. 229 (as Vanvitelli);
L. Laureati, in: F. Benzi (ed.), Gaspare Vanvitelli e le origini del vedutismo, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2002, pp. 216–217, cat. no. 73 (as Vanvitelli);
L. Laureati (ed.), Vanvitelli. Gaspar van Wittel, exhibition catalogue, Turin 2008, pp. 108–110 (as Vanvitelli);
U. Bile, in: N. Spinosa (ed.), Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, exhibition catalogue, Naples 2009, p. 348, cat. no. 1.199. (as Vanvitelli)

The present painting depicts the Grotto di Pozzuoli (or Posillipo, also called the Cripta Neapolitana), a tunnel, around seven hundred metres in length that connects Naples and the nearby town of Pozzuoli. Although it was referred to as a cave or grotto, it was not a natural formation, but a passage which had been excavated in 37 AD by Marcus Agrippa. The tunnel was later enlarged by Alfonso of Aragon, and again in the mid-16th century by Don Pedro of Toledo, Viceroy of Naples.

The entrance to the tunnel was located above the beach of Mergellina, where traditionally the tomb of Virgil was assumed to be. For this reason, the tunnel was also known as Virgil’s Cave, and a legend deeply rooted in Neapolitan tradition claimed that the tunnel in the rock had been created in a single night by the Latin poet, endowed with supernatural powers.

Vanvitelli was one of the first artists to depict a view of the celebrated tunnel in 1701 for Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli and Viceroy of Naples, who had invited the celebrated 'vedutista' to the city in 1699 (72.5 x 124.5 cm, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 3 December 1997, lot 47). This painting was followed by other versions, including the present work. The present version, the most impressive in size after the Medinaceli painting, has been identified as Vanvitelli’s ‘Foro di Montagna’ recorded in two 19th century inventories of Palazzo Albani in Urbino.

Between 1718 and 1725 Vanvitelli painted twenty-four paintings for Annibale Albani, Cardinal Camerlengo and nephew of Pope Innocent XI. Of these, fourteen have so far been traced, including Saint Peter’s Square, Rome in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 1663) and a View of Tivoli that was originally the pendant of the present painting, now in a private collection (see L. Laureati, 2002 in literature, pp. 156–157, cat. no. 43).