Lake Avernus near Naples, Antique Italian Landscape View, circa 1850

This is a view of Lake Avernus near Naples, an original antique steel engraving, uncolored, circa 1850. The caption below the image is lettered LAGO D' AVERNO, Italian for Lake Avernus, in open capitals.

The still, rounded lake fills the middle of the plate, ringed by wooded slopes and a line of cliffs at the right. A small square ruin stands on the far shore at the left beneath a tall, slender tree. Beyond the lake the sea opens out with a mountainous headland and a fortified building on a promontory at the center. In the foreground a small party rests by the path: a woman seated on a mule led by a man in a tall hat, with one man reclining and another seated on the rocks beside them.

No artist or engraver is named under the image. Below the caption the plate carries the house imprint, Aus d. Kunstanst d. Bibliogr. Instit. in Hildbh. at the lower left and Eigenthum der Verleger. at the lower right. The first is the art works of the Bibliographisches Institut in Hildburghausen, the second reads "property of the publishers." The plate number CCCCXXXVIIII is engraved at the top right.

The sheet comes from a dealer's album rather than from a bound set. Its imprint is that of Meyer's Universum, a serial collection of engraved views with descriptive text, published by Joseph Meyer's Bibliographisches Institut at Hildburghausen from 1833, its plates engraved on steel. Lake Avernus fills a volcanic crater west of Naples, and in antiquity it was taken for an entrance to the underworld, as Virgil describes it in the sixth book of the Aeneid.

Handling soiling along the top edge. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Corners and edges are not shown by this scan. Clean, even paper tone in the margin. Several larger brown marks.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.