A two-sheet prospect of Chiaia with the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius

A large prospect of Chiaia, an affluent neighbourhood on the seafront of the Bay of Naples, from the east. The thirty-point key underneath numbers landmarks including the Certosa di San Martino, Santa Maria degli Angeli alle Croci and, smoking in the background, the volcano Vesuvius. In the foreground are fishermen, a band of musicians and dancing Neapolitans. This is one of a set of four views engraved by Cardon after Gabriele Ricciadelli. This plate is dedicated to his patron Sir William Hamilton, British diplomat and antiquarian, who is better known as the husband of Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Admiral Lord Nelson. Gabriele Ricciardelli (c.1690-c.1780), a Neapolitan painter specialising in landscapes and seascapes, also worked in Ireland between 1753-9 and England, 1777. Antoine-Alexandre-Joseph Cardon (1739-1822) was a painter and engraver who worked in his hometown of Brussels, Vienna, Rome and Naples. At the latter he engraved plates for Baron d'Hancarville's 'Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon.bl W.m Hamilton'. His son, known in England as Anthony Cardon (1772-1813), is known for engraving three of Wheatley's famous series of 'Cries of London'.