Nicholas Revett

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Nicholas Revett
The Antiquities of Athens Volume 1, 1762

Nicholas Revett (born May 1720 in Brandeston Hall near Framlingham , Suffolk ; † June 3, 1804 ibid) was a British country nobleman and amateur architect , amateur archaeologist and painter , who was best known for his photographs of ancient buildings.

life and work

Nicholas Revett was the second son of the wealthy country nobleman John Revett (1691–1756). In September 1742 he traveled to Rome on his Grand Tour , where he studied painting with Marco Benefiale (1684–1764). In Rome he met James Stuart (1713–1788). In April 1748 he undertook a trip to study the ancient remains in Naples with the architect Matthew Brettingham and the painter Gavin Hamilton .

On this trip, Revett and Stuart drew up a plan for a project to measure the ancient buildings in Athens and Attica based on the model of the Édifices antiques de Rome (1692) by the French architect Antoine Desgodetz (1653–1728). In this they were encouraged by the archaeologists James Dawkins (1722–1757), Robert Wood (1717–1771) and John Bouverie (1723–1750), whom they met in Rome in 1749 while preparing for their study trip to the Eastern Mediterranean. They published Proposals for Publishing an Accurate Description of the Antiquities of Athens in 1748 . Through their contacts to the Society of Dilettanti , Revett was elected member in 1751, they managed to finance their trip on behalf of the society.

Revett and Stuart left Rome in 1750. After a stay in Venice and a detour to Pula and the Dalmatian coast, they traveled from Venice to Athens, where they arrived in March 1751. Here they made exact recordings of the ancient ruins of Athens and its surroundings, with Revett being responsible for the exact measurements and the plan drawings of the buildings, Stuart for the vedute and the text. Revett can be seen as the forerunner of a modern building researcher . From 1753 they traveled to large parts of Greece and the coast of Asia Minor .

Immediately after their return to London in the spring of 1755, Stuart and Revett began working on their work The Antiquities of Athens , the first volume of which appeared in 1762/63, but Revett left the project before the first volume appeared and was paid off. Therefore, the fame of the work is largely associated with James Stuart.

From June 1764, Revett undertook another research trip on behalf of the Society of Dilettanti with the classical scholar Richard Chandler (1738–1810) and the painter William Pars (1742–1782) to Asia Minor, in order to examine the ancient monuments there and to make precise building recordings. In 1765/66 they traveled to Greece. On this trip, too, Revett was responsible for the exact recording of the buildings. 1769-97 their results were published by the Society of Dilettanti in the work The Antiquities of Ionia . The Antiquities of Athens and the Antiquities of Ionia represent Revett's most important contribution to the history of architecture, as they first provided the Greek-ancient models for the architects of classicism in England and Europe through illustrations.

As an architect, Revett, who had no formal training as such, designed the remodeling of English country mansions in the "Greek style" ( Greek Revival ) for friends . These included Standlynch House in Wiltshire for Henry Dawkins , brother of James Dawkins, and West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire for Francis Dashwood , both members of the Society of Dilettanti. In Ayot Saint Lawrence in Hertfordshire he built a church for Sir Lionel Lyde (1778/79).

Publications

  • with James Stuart : The Antiquities of Athens . 4 volumes, London 1762–1815 ( digital ).
  • with Richard Chandler , William Pars : Ionian Antiquities . London 1769 ( digital ).
    • Second expanded edition London 1785.
  • with Richard Chandler, William Pars: Antiquities of Ionia. Part the second . London 1797 ( digital ).
    • New edition: The Antiquities of Ionia . 4 volumes, London 1821–1881 ( digital ).
  • with Richard Chandler: Travels in Asia Minor and Greece, or: An account of a tour made at the expense of the Society of Dilettanti , with corrections and remarks by Nicholas Revett. 2 volumes, Oxford 1825 ( digital ).

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Ayot St Lawrence. The History of the Palladian church .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Revett, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British country nobleman, amateur architect and painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 1720
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandeston Hall at Framlingham , Suffolk
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1804
Place of death Brandeston Hall at Framlingham , Suffolk