The portrayal of disaster in Western fine art

This paper surveys the depiction of disaster in Western art over the centuries. Emphasis is placed on the Italian tradition, as Italy is a country that has a rich experience of both artistic developments and disasters and has provided inspiration to artists from other countries. The survey begins with Classical art and continues with the Mediaeval fresco tradition. The vision of disaster was expanded when naturalism was introduced into art during the Renaissance. Whereas earthquakes had been a prime motivation for artistic representations in the Mediaeval period, during the Baroque volcanic eruptions seem to have been more popular, especially given the remarkable artistic output around Mount Vesuvius in the 18th century. Marine painters concentrated on storm and shipwreck, but often with delineations of extreme atmospheric phenomena. In the 19th century John Martin and others painted the Apocalypse. In the 20th century, Expressionism favoured lively depictions of natural hazards and so, surprisingly, did certain forms of metaphysical abstraction. Disaster has been seen in Western fine art in six ways: as spectacle, as allegory (through Classical mythology or Biblical drama), as a votive instrument of atonement, as a visual commemoration of an extreme event, and as a dramatization of a metaphysical proposition.