Aniello Cataneo Sold at Auction Prices

Aniello Cataneo (fl. Naples, c.1743-1806) after Antonio Piaggio (Italian, circa 1713-1795)

Aniello Cataneo (fl. Naples, c.1743-1806) after Antonio Piaggio (Italian, circa 1713-1795) ' Fvrentis Anno MDCCLXXIX Vesvvii Prospectvs ' hand-coloured engraving on laid paper, unframed 68.5 x 51.5cm (pl.), 77 x 56cm incl. margins Footnote: Antonio Piaggio, a Vatican priest and scholar, was first sent to Naples in 1753 by the Vatican to unroll and transcribe papyrus scrolls discovered during the excavations at Herculaneum. Piaggio was later employed between 1779 until his death, by Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) the antiquarian and British Minister at Naples, to observe and record the activities of Mount Vesuvius. Based at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Pugliano, on the western side of Vesuvius, Piaggio produced eight notebooks of drawn studies and written observations. Hamilton later donated Piaggio's notebooks to the Royal Society where they are to this day. The great eruption of Mount Vesuvius that began in August 1779 gave rise to Hamilton hurriedly bringing out as Volume III a Supplement to his famous Campi Phlegraei (Volumes I and II published in 1776). In it under "References to Plate 1" (the frontispiece comprising six vignettes) Hamilton points out that vignette 4 of the great eruption of the night of August 8th, was taken from a drawing made by "Piaggi" [sic] and he points out that "A large, and magnificent copper Plate from the said original drawing, is now sold at Naples" (see also, Noah Heringman, Sciences of Antiquity: Romantic Antiquarianism, National History and Knowledge , 2013, p. 113-114). It is almost certain that the present lot is the Piaggio engraving cited by Hamilton.