VESUVIUS

IT HAS BEEN SLEEPING FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY. IT WAS IN  MARCH 1944 WHEN THE VOLCANO WITH  IT’S HIGH SPIRE OF SMOKE  THAT REACHED THREE THOUSAND METRES AND IT’S IMPRESSIVE LAVA FLOW  BADE FAREWELL TO NAPLES, ALMOST AS  IF IT INTENDED TO FOLLOW  SUIT OF THE WAR WHICH  HAD COME TO AN END, AND  IT STORED AWAY THE POWERFUL BOMBS  AND WEAPONS CONTAINED IN IT’S CRATER. TO CELEBRATE  TOGETHER  THESE 50 YEARS OF  REST (OR TRUCE )  AND TO GIVE BACK TO THE << MOUNTAIN OF FIRE >> ALL OF  IT’S SUBLIME  AND PICTORIAL ASPECTS OF  MORE  THAN TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF HISTORY, THAT IS  IF YOU CONSIDER THE  BEGINNING AS THE SACRIFICE OF PLINIO – WE DECIDED TO WORK ON A VOLUME  WHICH WOULD CONTAIN INFORMATION ON A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS  - SCIENCE, HISTORY, ART, LITERATURE , ALL COORDINATED  TO GIVE VESUVIUS THE SEQUENCE OF IT’S VOLCANIC EVENTS, IMAGES AND IMPRESSIONS THAT IT TRANSMITTED IN THE DIFFERENT  PHASES OF IT’S STORY, THE RELATIONSHIP TO HISTORICAL FACTS WHICH FOUND IT A WITNESS IN THE CENTURIES  THAT PASSED. THE RELATIONSHIP WITH NAPLES, THE DEEP AND DARK TIE  BETWEEN  BLOOD AND LAVA EXALTED THE BAROQUE POETRY AND THE QUESTION – A FUTILE QUESTION REALLY – BUT ALL THE SAME A VERY INTRIGUING ONE -  WAS IT THE CITY  THAT HAD MADE THE VOLCANO EVEN MORE IMPORTANT,  OR INSTEAD WAS IT THE VOLCANO THAT REFLECTED GREAT PART OF IT’S FASCINATION ONTO THE CITY.  AND IF THIS CONTRIBUTION OF  ICONS AND ITINERIES  BY MEN OF LETTERS AND TRAVELLERS  TO WHICH FRANCESCO DURANTE  AND ATANASIO MOZZILLI DEDICATED PAGE AFTER PAGE OF CAREFUL RESEARCH IN A FASCINATING NARRATIVE ON THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN LITERATURE AND THE VOLCANO,  NICOLA SPINOSA  PIVOTS  HIS ATTENTION TO AN ANALYSIS THAT WITH  A GREAT  VARIETY OF MOTIVES AND  HINTS   PASSES THROUGH  AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF WORK IN AN INTENSIVE INVENTORY OF REPRESENTATIVE ART  ON VESUVIUS: FROM THE FIRST ONE  BY FRANZ HOEFNAGEL ( 1575 ) UP UNTIL THE CONTEMPORARY REPRESENTATIONS OF ANDY WARHOL AND ERNESTO  TATAFIORE. IF THERE  IS INSISTENCE ON THIS ON THIS POINT IT IS ONLY BECAUSE  OF THE  ENORMOUS AND ARTICULATED COLLECTION OF ILLUSTRATIONS WHICH CONSTITUTES  AN INTEGRATED PART OF  A SCIENTIFIC AND CRITICAL APPROACH  NOT TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION UNTIL  THIS MOMENT, IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE THAT INCLUDES THE WORK OF AN ACCADEMIC OF FRANCE  LIKE GEORGES  VALLET, A VOLCANOLOGIST LIKE GASPARINI, A PHILOLOGIST LIKE GIGANTE,  HISTORIANS LIKE MOZZILLO, PLACANICA AND SPINOSA,  WRITERS  LIKE  FRATTA AND DURANTE.  THE HISTORY OF VESUVIUS, IT’S CHANGE  IN TIME, THE  REPEATING OF ERUPTIVE PHENOMENA AFTER THE TERRIFYING ERUPTION  OF 1631  ARE  THE ARGUMENTS WHICH FIND  PAOLO GASPARINI  AND AN  ARTICULATED RECONSTRUCTION IN A LONG STUDY OF THE VOLCANO IN IT’S  GEOLOGIC REALITY, AND WITH ALL THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC  INFORMATION  FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEETH CENTURY ONWARDS. IN A PERSPECTIVE THAT COULD WELL  BE  DESCRIBED AS A REFLECTION OF THE HISTORY OF MENTALITY, AUGUSTO PLACANICA FOLLOWS THE ETHNIC- RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS, THE FEARS AND THE ESCHATOLOGICAL BELIEFS, THE  CERTAINTY AND THE DOUBTS IMPLIED BY THE  “CATASTROPHE”  BOTH ON AN  IMAGINARY  COLLECTIVE  LEVEL  AND IN A PHILOSOPHICAL SPECULATION OF THE  ILLUMINISTIC CULTURE.
THE GREAT DEBATE ON THE FORMATION  OF  VOLCANOES, THE CONTRIBUTION BY SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, THE PRESENCE OF VESUVIUS IN THE  TRAVELLER’S  DIARIES, THE POSTULATED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN << NATURAL SULPHUREOUS >>, INFLAMMABLE,  DANGEROUS, ON THE  NEAPOLITAN POPULATION AND ON THE UNPREDICTABLE  LAND UPON WHICH THEY LIVE, THE SAINT GENNARO CULT IN THE MAJIC- RELIGIOUS SYNERGY ARE THE BASIS OF THE PARTICITATION  OF ATANASIO MOZZILLO, TO WHICH  FRANCESCO DURANTE GIVES  FURTHER AND EVEN MORE SPECIFIC INFORMATION,  MOVING THE ATTENTION TO  THE LITERATURE WHICH FOR FIVE CENTURIES  EVOLVE AND ARE ALIMENTATED BY THE VOLCANO,  << THE MOUNTAIN OF FIRE >>,  ALTERNATIVELY A   KIND-HEARTED MOTHER  AND A RUTHLESS DESTROYER. THAT’S WHY  THE MANNERISM AND BAROQUE  OF TANSILLO AND GIULIO CESARE CORTESE : THE  DEVOTED JESUITISM  ( FIRE  AS  A DIVINE NEMESIS ) ; VESUVIUS OF THE “ ENLIGHTENED”; THE OCCULT  WHISPER  POSSESSING A ROMANTIC MYSTERY : CHATEAUBRIAND, SHELLEY AND THEN LEOPARDI; LASTLY,  MORE  RECENT AND UNHEARD OF  PURIFICATION AND POST MODERN CONSUMERISM OF THE MYTH . AN ITINERY  WHICH – AS MENTIONED BEFORE – REVEALS IN MANY WAYS AN AFFINITY  TO THE ONE  OF NICOLA SPINOSA, IN THAT IT ALSO  STRESSES MOVEMENTS OF CULTURE  AND TASTE , AND OF FASHIONS  WHICH LASTED THREE CENTURIES.
TRACES,  INDICATIONS  AND SEGMENTS WHICH ALL MORE OR LESS TAKE US  BACK TO THE VERY FIRST ERUPTION  HISTORICALLY DOCUMENTATED, THE CATASTROPHE  WHICH  BURIED POMPEI AND HERCULANIUM, SO CONSERVING THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY  EVIDENCE OF THE MATERIALISTIC CULTURE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. MARCELLO GIGANTE THOUGH WAS MORE INTERESTED IN THE ASPECTS CONCERNING THE EARTHQUAKE  OF ’79 A.C. WHICH SIGNALLED THE ENTRANCE OF VESUVIUS IN THE WORLD OF ART; THEREFORE THE EPIC POETS OF THE IMPERIAL AGE – VALERIO FLACCO AND SILIO ITALICO – UNTIL THE NEAPOLITAN PAPINO STAZIO WHO NARRATED THE DIONYSUS MADNESS OF THE VOLCANO TRANSMITTING THE SHIVERS OF EXTERMINATION AND DESOLATE  WASTE  LAND, UP UNTIL GIACOMO LEOPARDI.
IF VALLET RECITES AN  OPENING OF  AN  EXTRAORDINARY  NATURE ,  ARTURO FRATTA  ENDS THE VOLUME  FOLLOWING MEMORIES CALLED TO MIND  INCLUDING EVEN THOSE  OF CONTEMPORARY SOURCES – MALAPARTE, LEWIS, MAIURI -  THE << LAST TIME >> THE DEVASTATING FIRE, FROM THE ASHES TO THE LAPILLUS , PARTLY EMBLEMATIC , WHICH ACCOMPANY THE PAINFUL AWAKENING OF NAPLES FROM  THE  ABSENCE OF REASONING. AND IT WAS THAT, AT LEAST FOR  THE VOLCANO, AN ANGRY RUMBLE, AS IF TO CALL  TO ITSELF  THE ATTENTION OF THE PEOPLE  AT THE BOTTOM OF IT’S SLOPES, THAT YEARS OF DEVASTATION AND FIRE  OF AN UNATURAL ORIGIN, IN FACT IT    HAD FALLEN FROM THE  EXTRA STRONG BURSTS OF THE CRATER , “FREEING”  ITSELF  OF IT’S BURDON,   IT HAD MOCKED,  UNDAMAGED, THE PASTORAL  SHIELD OF GENNARO VESCOVO, THAUMATURGE.