Ludovica Trezzani (2002) explains that Sorrento was not yet included as a stopover in any of the five days that the Kingdom of Naples was entitled to in the two-week itinerary of Rome and Naples. And it was not until the second half of the 18th century, when the excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the temples of Paestum attracted excursions to the south of Naples, which became the main purpose of the visit instead of the Phlegraean Fields. For the author, this must be the reason why this is the first view that Vanvitelli painted of the Sorrento coast, the only one known, and why this landscape does not reappear in eighteenth-century Vedutism.
A very personal commission, therefore, from the viceroy, Duke of Medinaceli, when he probably knew that he had to leave Naples, especially if we take into account that, with the same theme, another view is mentioned in the inventory of the estate of his nephew, the 10th Duke of Medinaceli, which has not yet been identified, which is why it is not possible to know whether this work is number 185 or 186, as it appears under the following headings: "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "...", "..." and "...".Country of Sorrento..." y "Another of the same...". It is perhaps because it is not yet one of the most common places on the Italian journey that the painter notes on the central bench of the fountain the name of the place he has painted and the date "Sorrento 1702".
A large preparatory drawing of this view has survived (G. Briganti 1996, D 182) on two joined folios which, according to Trezzani, must have been taken from the terrace in the foreground.