Lot #: 85326
ATHENS, VIEW FROM THE PROPYLIAE. [w/o title] |
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Description
A large copper engraved view from the Acropolis / Propyliae with part of the town. From the second volume of Stuart & Revett's "Antiquities of Athens". engraved by James Basire. From the first edition of their work.
This magnificent view is engraved from sketches made by James Stuart during his and Nicholas Revett's surjourn in Athens 1751-55. The British architect and painter James Stuart (1713-1788), son of a Scottish sailor, started painting from a very early age. While still an adolescent, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Society of Arts, where he cultivated his talent in drawing and geometry.
In 1741, his siblings aided him to travel to Rome, as he had fervently desired. Stuart walked most of the journey, earning money from odd jobs on the way. In Rome, Stuart made friends with painter Gavin Hamilton and architects Matthew Brettingham and Nicholas Revett.
Nicholas Revett (1720-1804) met Stuart, Hamilton and Brettingham in 1842, while he was in Rome studying painting with Cavaliere Benefiale. In April 1748, the four artists made an excursion on foot to Naples and toured the antiquities. At that time, in their treatise "Proposals for Publishing an Accurate Description of the Antiquities of Athens", Stuart and Revett first formulated the idea that would lead to their project in Greece.
The idea gained the fervent support of the Society of Dilettanti in Rome, which financed the mission. Stuart and Revett arrived in Greece in the spring of 1751. They stayed there for about two and a half years, facing a multitude of adversities in their work, and returned to England in 1755.
The two worked mainly in Athens and Attica, but also visited Corinth, Thessalonica and Delphi. Revett measured the monuments and Stuart made the drawings. All the work was completed "in situ". Determined to delineate everything as accurately as possible, they excavated almost to the foundations.
As they note in the introduction to the publication, no element was added to picturesque effect and even the human figures were depicted from nature.
Reference: Blackmer, Atabey
This magnificent view is engraved from sketches made by James Stuart during his and Nicholas Revett's surjourn in Athens 1751-55. The British architect and painter James Stuart (1713-1788), son of a Scottish sailor, started painting from a very early age. While still an adolescent, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Society of Arts, where he cultivated his talent in drawing and geometry.
In 1741, his siblings aided him to travel to Rome, as he had fervently desired. Stuart walked most of the journey, earning money from odd jobs on the way. In Rome, Stuart made friends with painter Gavin Hamilton and architects Matthew Brettingham and Nicholas Revett.
Nicholas Revett (1720-1804) met Stuart, Hamilton and Brettingham in 1842, while he was in Rome studying painting with Cavaliere Benefiale. In April 1748, the four artists made an excursion on foot to Naples and toured the antiquities. At that time, in their treatise "Proposals for Publishing an Accurate Description of the Antiquities of Athens", Stuart and Revett first formulated the idea that would lead to their project in Greece.
The idea gained the fervent support of the Society of Dilettanti in Rome, which financed the mission. Stuart and Revett arrived in Greece in the spring of 1751. They stayed there for about two and a half years, facing a multitude of adversities in their work, and returned to England in 1755.
The two worked mainly in Athens and Attica, but also visited Corinth, Thessalonica and Delphi. Revett measured the monuments and Stuart made the drawings. All the work was completed "in situ". Determined to delineate everything as accurately as possible, they excavated almost to the foundations.
As they note in the introduction to the publication, no element was added to picturesque effect and even the human figures were depicted from nature.
Reference: Blackmer, Atabey
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