Reveley, Willey
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- Reveley, Willey
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(1760 - 99), architect, b. Yorks; pupil of William Chambers 1777 - 81 and his assistant clerk of wks. at Somerset Ho. 1781 - 2; ed. 3rd vol. of The Antiquities of Athens [1795].
1784 - 8 Rome (1784 - 12 Feb. 1785), Ariccia, Fondi, Capua, Arienzo, Benevento, Salerno (by 20 Feb.), Eboli, Paestum (by 25 Feb.), Avellino, Ariano, Castelluccio, Cerignola, Barletta, Trani, Biscaglia, Molfetta, Giovinazzo, Bari, Polignano a Mare, Monopoli, Brindisi, Lecce, Otranto (26 Mar. 1785) [Malta, Greece, Egypt] Rome (by 10 Sep. 1786 - summer 1788), Venice, Milan [Paris Sep. 1788]
It is unclear how Reveley reached Italy, but he was certainly at Rome in 1784 when Thomas Maynard Heselrige [Hesilrige] recommended him to Sir Richard Worsley as a draughtsman.1 Reveley made a number of watercolours in Rome and its environs (two are YCBA) and he also made designs in Italy, sending in 1785 an elevation of a theatre for music for exhibition at the RA. Worsley subsequently engaged Reveley, whom he described as an English artist already living in Rome, to accompany him on a tour of Greece and Egypt 'to make drawings of Architecture, & the most interesting ruins'2 (some of his drawings were in Reveley's sale at Christie's, 11 - 12 May 1801). Later in life Reveley transcribed part of his journal of travel with Worsley as the sole entry under the letter 'J' of his highly idiosyncratic 'Manuscript Material for a Dictionary of Architecture, and of a Journey through Italy, Greece and Egypt, etc.' (RIBA).
They left Rome on 12 February 1785, travelling via Ariccia (where Reveley thought Bernini's church 'a very bad copy of one of the finest buildings in the world [the Pantheon]') along the Appian Way. Their entry to the Kingdom of Naples at Fondi was not propitious, Reveley complaining that his lodgings had no glass or paper on the windows and that the straw beds were full of bugs. On 15 February, whilst en route to Capua, the travellers had a view of the erupting Vesuvius; the palace at Caserta Reveley thought 'not in good taste'. A diversion was made to Arienzo and Benevento, principally to see the Arch of Trajan, before they proceeded to Salerno. Between 20 and 25 February Reveley and Worsley made an excursion to Paestum, where Reveley encountered ancient Greek architecture (and his enthusiasm for the style subsequently earned him the nickname of 'the Athenian'). Two of his drawings of Paestum survive (YCBA) and a third dated 1786 (VAM) is from the later visit mentioned in his 'Dictionary'. At Brindisi he was much impressed by the columns supposedly erected as beacons by Augustus and, despite suffering from a fever, he made a drawing (now YCBA). They continued to Otranto, where Reveley found the castle 'a pitiful ruin'. On 26 March they finally set sail for Malta and the journal ends with their arrival at Rhodes on 21 July 1785.
Reveley was back at Rome in the autumn of 1786. His 'Dictionary' is full of (mainly undated) 'Observations made on the Spot' in Rome, some of them in association with James Byres. On 10 September he saw an obelisk raised onto its pedestal, the event taking place 'amidst the acclamations of the people, & the castle of St Angelo firing'. Although this description appears in a section of the dictionary describing the basilica of St Peter's, Reveley actually witnessed the erection of the obelisk in front of the Quirinal Palace by Giovanni Antinori, one of a number of obelisk placements undertaken by Pius VI. A month later Peter Cowling described how he had walked with Reveley to the Villa Borghese,3 and at Easter 1787 'Monsu Riveley Archo.Inglese - 25' was living above the Gioco Liscio on the Piazza Mignanelli.4 On 12 July of that year he made a close inspection of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Republican Forum, during which he 'went into a cellar under the portico where the remainder of the columns are to be partly seen'.
His architectural studies continued in 1788. He described the cutting up of an ancient red granite column to repair the Campo Marzio obelisk (now in front of the Italian parliament), and acquired a number of architectural casts at Rome (Reveley sale 1801). In March 1788, however, his life underwent a dramatic change when he married Miss James, as Elizabeth Cooper explained to George Cumberland.5 At eleven o'clock one evening Reveley had been caught in flagrante with Miss James by her father; the pair were obliged to run almost naked to the architect's lodgings, with the irate father in pursuit; the next night they were married by an English clergyman and, since her father would provide nothing, various ladies in Rome collected money to buy the unfortunate bride some clothes.
By the late summer of 1788 the architect, presumably with his wife, was on his way home to England. It is certain that his journey took him to Venice, where he judged Palladio's churches harshly, and to Milan, where he thought the cathedral 'would scarcely be finished by the day of judgement'. From his 'Dictionary' visits to many other northern Italian cities can be inferred: Ancona, Padua and Verona on the east side of the peninsula; Florence, Siena and Pisa in Tuscany, where his particular fascination was with the medieval towers; Bologna, Modena and Parma in central Italy; and Genoa. By August 1788, however, Reveley had definitely reached the south of France.
On 13 May 1789 Charles Long told George Cumberland of a drawing then exhibited at the RA in London sent from Italy by Reveley.6
1. Bradford MSS, 2/4/49 (Lincoln AO). 2. Worsley MSS, 23, 'Journal of a Tour, 1783 - 7', with list of drawings made by Reveley. 3. Cowling jnl.MSS (24 Oct. 1786). 4. AVR sa, S.Andrea delle Fratte. 5. Add.36495, f.303 (25 March 1788). 6. Add.36496, f.110.
F. S.