Gaspare Vanvitelli is unanimously considered the founder of the eighteenth-century urban veduta, which was based on close observation of views and drawing from life, including scenes of everyday events and contemporary society. Born in Holland, where he was known as Gaspar van Wittel, Vanvitelli was a disciple of still-life and landscape painter Matthias Withoos in Utrecht, one of the Dutch cities most marked by Italian culture. He moved to Italy in 1674, living in Rome, Naples and Venice, where he painted the first views in oil.

The grotto at Posillipo (Naples), early eighteenth century, depicts the entrance to the wellknown Seiano Grotto in Posillipo, a 700-metre Roman tunnel built by Marcus Cocceius Nerva in 37 AD. In this veduta its height (14 metres) and narrowness are skilfully contrasted with the small figures. The Seiano Grotto linked Naples to Pozzuoli and to the volcanic Phlegrean Fields, where Virgil set his oracle of the famous Sybil of Cumae. In the painting, the legendary tomb of the poet (Virgil) appears here at the top of the mountain. Because this popular area of Naples was regularly visited by foreigners on their Grand Tour, alongside the noblemen and villagers Vanvitelli depicts a group of elegant travellers reading the inscription on a monument, crowned with the royal coat of arms, that commemorates successive improvements to the grotto made by Alphonse V of Aragon, King of Naples between 1442 and 1458, and Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga, Spanish viceroy of that city between 1532 and 1553. The poetic atmosphere of these two paintings (The grotto at Posillipo and The Villa Martinelli and the Palace of the Duke of Aquale in Posillipo) reflects the period’s literary perception of Italian landscapes described by poets such as Virgil. Travellers compared the places they visited with their descriptions in classical literature, idealising them as loci amoeni. Views of the Seiano Grotto were much in demand among Vanvitelli’s clients, which explains why there are eleven surviving versions of this scene (Maurer, G. en: Italian Masterpieces. From Spain´s Royal Court, Museo del Prado, 2014, p. 250).