Eruption of Mount Vesuvius with the Ponte della Maddalena in the Distance
Place
![A modern photograph of Mount Vesuvius, viewed across a body of water with a curve of land on the left, similar to the layout of Volaire's painting.](http://seeingnaturear.site.seattleartmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2017/01/GettyImages-565946511_low.jpg)
View in the evening of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius in the distance. Frans Sellies / Getty Images
![A photograph of the erupting Mount Vesuvius with clouds and smoke in the background and Naples in the foreground.](http://seeingnaturear.site.seattleartmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2017/01/GettyImages-87922611_594_screen.jpg)
View of an eruption column (or plume of ash and gas) from Mount Vesuvius, as seen over the rooftops of Naples, Italy, mid March, 1944. (Photo by George Rodger/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)