”
Just two miles beyond the gate is a space on the green Campagna where, for some time
past, excavations have been in progress, which thus far have resulted in the discovery of
several tombs . . . with the Alban hills in the distance . . . The excavations are an object of
great interest both to the Romans and to strangers, and there were many carriages, and a
great many visitors viewing the progress of the works . . . A short time ago the ground in
the vicinity was a green surface, level, except here and there a little hillock, or scarcely
perceptible swell . . . and they have dug into the depths of several tombs, bringing to light
precious marbles, pillars, a statue, and elaborately wrought sarcophagi . . . You cannot dig
six feet downward anywhere into the soil — deep enough to hollow out a grave — without
finding some precious relic of the past. It is a very wonderful arrangement of Providence
that these things should have been preserved for a long series of coming generations by that
accumulation of dust and soil and grass and trees and houses over them, which will keep
them safe, and cause their reappearance above ground to be gradual, so that the rest of the
world’s lifetime may have for one of its enjoyments the uncovering of old Rome.
”
The Roman Campagna, May 8, 1858
“By-and-by we reached Assisi, which is magnificently situated for pictorial purposes, with
a grey castle above it, and a grey wall around it, itself on a mountain, and looking over the
great plain which we had been traversing, and through which lay our onward way.”
Assisi, May 28, 1858
Paul Travis (American, 1891–1975),
Vesuvius, 1928. Watercolor on paper,
14 7/8 x 20 inches. Jundt Art Museum,
Gonzaga University; Museum
purchase with funds provided by the
Fredrick and Genevieve Schlatter
Endowed Print Fund, 2018.17.
Between 1906 and 1944 there
was a series of eruptions of Mt.
Vesuvius, during which time this
painting by Cleveland-based artist
and professor Paul Travis is dated.
It is as much an essay in watercolor
technique as of the energy
depicted.
The most catastrophic of these
eruptions was in 1944. Motion
pictures of this by Allied forces
during WWII, showing the terrible
destructive power latent within the
earth, can be seen online.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=1bsmv6PyKs0&feature=youtu.be
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