Mount Vesuvius, 1985

Warhol created the Vesuvius series in 1985 for Lucio Amelio, an Italian art dealer and curator. Amelio commissioned the works for display at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, which was better known for displaying masterworks by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, and Caravaggio. The corresponding exhibition catalogue included the statement from Warhol: “I painted each Vesuvius by hand, always using different colors so that they can give the impression of having been painted just one minute after the eruption.”  This version, entirely black and white, highlights Warhol’s return to painting with its expressive brush strokes. It is a rare example of Warhol capturing motion in his two-dimensional works. Vesuvius, a volcano notorious for its destruction of Pompeii in 79 CE, and continued eruptions since, has been memorialized by artists throughout history including Albert Bierstadt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and JMW Turner to name a few.