The · Antiquities · Of Athens · Measured · And · Delineated By · James · Stuart · F.R.S. And F.S.A. And · Nicholas · Revett · Painters · And · Architects. Volume · The · First · (-Third.)
RA Collection: Book
Record number
Author
Imprint
Physical Description
General Note
Contents
Responsibility Note
In Volume I no plate is signed by a draughtsman; all are signed by engravers, except ch.2:2, 3: 10, 11, 13, 4:4, 5:2. Most are engraved by J. Basire, E. Rooker or A. Walker; others are by R. Strange (3:18), C. Grignion (4:10), P. Fourdrinier (5:3). The title-page vignette, headpieces and tailpieces are signed as engraved by J. Basire or J. Couse; one is signed as engraved by I. Green. In Volume II one plate is signed as drawn by J. Stuart (2:2) and three by W. Pars (5:1, 12, 13). Some are signed by engravers - Jas. Newton, Lerpiniere, Saml. Smith, Aliamet, Sharp. The frontispiece portrait of Stuart is signed as drawn and engraved by C. Knight; the title-page vignette, as engraved by Thornthwaite; the headpieces and tailpieces are unsigned. In Volume III most plates are signed by draughtsmen (L.S. De La Rochette, J. Stuart, A. Arrowsmith, N. Revett, W. Pars, W. Reveley, C. King) and by engravers (W. Palmer, T. Foot, J. Walker, Lerpiniere, J. Record, J. Newton, J. Skelton, Blake, T. Midland, W. Lowry, J. Harding, Landseer, J. Hall). Of the decorations, the tailpiece of chapter 1 is signed as drawn by J. Stuart and engraved by Hall; the title-page vignette is stated (p. xviii) to be by Revett; the others are unsigned.
The title pages of Volumes II and III have the imprint of John Nichols.
The work is dedicated by the authors to the King (George III).
References
S.W. Soros, ed., James "Athenian" Stuart 1713-1788 The Rediscovery Of Antiquity [exhibition catalogue] (2006); K. Bristol, 'James "Athenian" Stuart and The antiquities of Athens', in Antiquarian Book Monthly, XXV: 8, issue 288 (1998), p. 23-36; D. Watkin, Athenian Stuart (1982); L. Lawrence, 'Stuart and Revett', in Journal of the Warburg Institute, II:2 (1938-9), p.128-46.
Accounts of the Greek Revival include D. Constantine, Early Greek travellers and the Hellenic ideall (1984); J.M. Crook, The Greek Revival (1972, rev. 1995); D. Wiebenson, Sources of the Greek Revival architecture (1969).
ESTC, T22194
Summary Note
Stuart and Revett planned a survey of Athens as early as 1748 but did not arrive there until 1751. Meanwhile Richard Dalton visited the city and published his Twenty-one prints of the antiquities of Athens (1751). Local authorities and the plague preventing Stuart and Revett from surveying the Acropolis, they returned to Britain and issued a prospectus promising a four-volume publication which should begin with descriptions of minor monuments. Meanwhile Le Roy published his Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece (1758), and an English adaptation of this, Robert Sayer's Ruins of Athens, was published in 1759. At this point Revett sold out his share in the partnership. Finally the first volume of the work was published in '1762' (possibly in early 1763). This was so critical of Le Roy that the latter published both a response (Observations sur les edifices des anciens peuples, 1767) and a revised edition of his Ruines (1770). Stuart never returned to Athens, but Revett made drawings in the city in 1765-6 while travelling to Ionia for the Society of Dilettanti, and eventually the Dilettanti made these available to Stuart for the second volume of The Antiquities of Athens. Plates and text were already partly in print when Stuart died in 1788, leaving the volume to William and James Newton to be prepared for publication in 1789. After William Newton's death (1790) the third volume was prepared by Willey Reveley for publication in 1794.
It had been generally accepted that early Roman architecture derived from that of the Greeks; but Stuart and Revett's four volumes contributed to the growing fashion for directing admiration to ancient Greece rather than Rome.
Provenance
Between 2 January and 28 April 1795: 'P.d Taylor Stewart's 3.rd Vol: £5: 12s' (see RA Treasurer's Account Book, 1768-1795).
7 June 1816: 'Mr. [George] Dawe moved that the 4.th Vol. of Stuarts Athens be purchased for the use of the Library, to complete the work, which was seconded by Mr. Theed & passed unanimously.' (RA Council Minutes V, 284). Although not recorded as present in the Library until after 1864, it is possible that a copy of volume IV was indeed acquired as a consequence of this resolution in 1816, and that the description of the Academy's copy of The Antiquities of Athens in the 1821, 1841 and 1864 printed Library catalogues as consisting of volumes I-III only was a careless repetition from the catalogue that preceded it.
Copy Note
Binding Note
Subject
British - Archaeology - Expeditions - Greece - Athens - Corinth - Thessaloníce - Delos - History - 18th century
Manuals - Plans - Elevations - Sections - Views - Maps - Great Britain - 18th century
Pictorial works - Great Britain - 18th century
Contributors
William Newton, editor
Willey Reveley, editor, draughtsman
Johann Christoph Haberkorn, printer
George III King of Great Britain, dedicatee
James Basire the elder, engraver
Edward Rooker, engraver
Anthony Walker, engraver
Sir Robert Strange, engraver
Charles Grignion, engraver
Paul Fourdrinier, engraver
Daniel Lerpinière, engraver
James Newton, engraver
Samuel Smith, engraver
François Germain Aliamet, engraver
William Sharp, engraver
William Palmer, engraver
Thomas Foot, engraver
James Walker, engraver
James Record, engraver
William Skelton, engraver
William Blake, engraver
Thomas Midland, engraver
Wilson Lowry, engraver
John W. Harding, engraver
John Landseer ARA, engraver
John Hall, engraver
William Pars ARA, draughtsman
Louis Stanislas D'Arcy Delarochette, draughtsman
Aaron Arrowsmith the elder, draughtsman
Charles King, draughtsman
John Couse, engraver
John Thornthwaite, engraver
Mrs Elizabeth Stuart
John Green, engraver
John Nichols, publisher
Images from this book
9 results
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After Nicholas Revett
Erechtheion, Athens: details of one of the caryatids and entablature of the South Porch
Etching with engraving
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After James Stuart
View of the Erechtheion, Athens, October 1787
Etching with engraving
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After Nicholas Revett
Parthenon, Athens: transverse section of the portico
Etching with engraving
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After James Stuart
Statue on the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus, Athens
Etching with engraving
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After James Stuart
View of the Eastern Front of the Parthenon
Etching with engraving
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After James Stuart
View of the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus, Athens
Etching with engraving
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After Nicholas Revett
Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus, Athens: restored elevation
Etching with engraving
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After Nicholas Revett
The Erechtheum, Athens: capital, base and entablature of the North Porch
Etching with engraving
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After Nicholas Revett
Parthenon, Athens: elevation of the portico restored, 20 April 1787
Etching with engraving