Volcanos in art: Enlightenment, Power and Revolution

This lecture explores the explosive presence of volcanoes in art from the late 18th to the early 19th century — a period when science, politics, and aesthetics were all undergoing seismic change. Far from being mere spectacles of nature, volcanic eruptions became powerful symbols through which artists grappled with the forces reshaping their world.

We begin with the Enlightenment, when travellers, natural philosophers, and painters flocked to Vesuvius in search of sublime experience and empirical knowledge. Their images reveal a new fascination with geology, observation, and the drama of natural law. From there, we trace how volcanoes became charged with political meaning: emblems of divine judgement, metaphors for revolutionary upheaval, and visual shorthand for the instability of empires. Artists such as Joseph Wright of Derby and Pierre Jacques Volaire transformed eruptions into meditations on power, fragility, and the volatility of human ambition.