Page 42 - Joseph Wright of Derby: Virgils's Tomb & The Grand Tour.

Fig.6. JOSEPH WRIGHT, Grotto by the Seaside in the Kingdom of Naples, with Banditti,
Sunset, 1778, formerlyThos.Agnew & Sons.

Kingdom of Naples, with Banditti, Sunset, of 1778 (Fig. – the subject of this catalogue, painted in 1779, and
6), the fugitives and soldiers seem involved in some a copy painted around five years later - the tomb
desperate, unexplained conflict or conspiracy, and in holds a solitary figure, like a priest in a temple. This
Grotto in the Gulf of Salernum,with the figure of Julia ban- is Silius Italicus, the first century consul who had
ished from Rome, exhibited in 1780, Julia, the daugh- bought the land on which the tomb stood. Accord-
ter of Augustus, raises her arms in terrified appeal, ing to the younger Pliny, Silius - whose own epic
as the tide within the cave rises8 (Fig. 7). about the Second Punic War was inspired by the
Aeneid - tended the monument, visited regularly and
The pattern was similar with Virgil’s Tomb, where declaimed the poet’s verses on Virgil’s birthday.
the cave-like tomb is seen from outside. Of the six Classical sources did not identify the site, but it was ac-
known versions four show the tomb empty, but in two cepted that Virgil had died at Brindisi in 19 B.C. and
that his remains were carried to Naples; St Paul was
8. Egerton, op.cit.: chalk studies, entitled Cavern in the Gulf of Salerno, alleged to have visited his tomb, and wept that he had
1774, cat 95,96;The Georgian House, Edinburgh, NationalTrust for not met the poet alive and crowned him as a saint,
Scotland c. 2006, sold Christies lot 31 5 June 2007; A Cavern, Morning, and since pilgrims flocked there asVirgil was also as-
Pamela Askew, and A Cavern, Evening, Smith College Museum of Art, sociated with magic and miraculous powers. From
Northampton, Mass., both 1774, cat 97, 98; A Grotto by the Sea-side in the twelfth century, successive commentators, with
the Kingdom of Naples, with Banditti, a Sun-set, 1778,Thos.Agnew & scanty evidence, fixed the site as being on a hillside
Sons, cat. 99; A Grotto in the Gulf of Salerno, with the figure of Julia above the Grotto of Posilippo, the old Roman tunnel
banished from Rome, Private Collection, cat 100.

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