Jacob Philipp Hackert. "Russian Squadron off the Coast of Catania"

The German landscape painter Jacob Philipp Hackert painted this picture in oil on canvas in Italy in 1778. It shows the harbour of the Sicilian city of Catania at the foot of Mount Etna: smoke rises above the volcano's summit, the city's buildings stretch along the shore, vessels with slanting sails lie in the harbour, and on the right large three-masted ships approach the coast. In the foreground three figures with a basket are seen on dark coastal rocks.

Hackert (1737–1807) was born in Prenzlau and studied at the Berlin Academy of Arts; from 1768 he worked mainly in Italy, and in 1786 he became court painter to King Ferdinand IV of Naples. His link with the Russian navy was a major commission for Catherine II: a series of twelve paintings, six of them devoted to the Battle of Chesma. The series was created in 1770–1778 and adorned the Chesma Hall of the Grand Peterhof Palace. So that the artist could depict an explosion and fire truthfully, in 1771 the old 60-gun frigate "Svyataya Varvara" was blown up in the Livorno roadstead on the orders of Alexei Orlov.