Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (Amersfoot 1652/3-1736 Rome)

Vanvitelli depicted this elegiac landscape in no fewer than twelve versions, all of which were produced in his maturity between 1701 and 1715. This picture is a rare example of the artist treating the subject in a vertical format. An undated horizontal version is held in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and a larger work sold at Sotheby’s, London, 3 December 1997, lot 47, for £190,000. Excavated near the end of the 1st Century BC in order to connect Naples with nearby Pozzuoli, the grotto attracted travellers and artists alike who came to see the reputed burial site of the celebrated Roman poet, Virgil.