(1720 - 1804), architect and draughtsman; 2nd s. of John Revett of Brandeston Hall, Suff.; Dilettanti 1751; travelled in Greece 1751 - 3 and Asia Minor 1764 - 6.
1742 - 51 [dep. England 22 Sep. 1742] Leghorn, Rome (by 1745 - Mar. 1750) with visit to Naples (Apr. 1748); Venice (May 1750 - ), Pola (three months), Venice ( - Jan. 1751) [Greece]
Best known for his collaboration with James 'Athenian' Stuart on the Antiquities of Athens [1762 - ], Revett had set out for Italy in 1742. He left England on 22 September and after landing at Leghorn went straight to Rome.1 He had private means and spent some eight years in Italy, but the earlier years remain undocumented. By 1745 'Nicola Rivet Pitte ereto' was living on the Strada Carozze in Rome,2 and in 1748, 1749 and 1750 he was sharing lodgings on the Strada Felice with Gavin Hamilton and James Stuart.3 Revett studied painting in Rome under Benefial, and became a very competent architectural draughtsman. He was later described as 'a very good judge of the hands of the different schools of Italian painting' and, in the preface to the Antiquities, Stuart and Revett said they had spent 'six or seven years in the study of painting' before embarking on their survey of Greece.4
In April 1748, with Gavin Hamilton, James Stuart and Matthew Brettingham, Revett made a six-week tour to Naples, walking both ways,5 and it was in the course of this expedition that the idea of the Antiquities was born. Back in Rome, Lord Charlemont and Lord Malton helped sponsor their scheme to draw the most ancient buildings in Greece; the artists named were Revett, Stuart and Gavin Hamilton (who, however, was unable to travel with them).6 Stuart and Revett left Rome for Venice in March 1750 and, missing their boat for Greece, spent some months in the city, becoming acquainted with the British resident Sir James Gray, through whose agency they were elected to the Society of Dilettanti. They had spent three months at Pola on the Dalmatian coast before finally embarking for Athens in January 1751.
1. See Cust, 75 - 6. 2. AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 3. Ibid., S.Andrea delle Fratte. 4. See L. Lawrence, JWCI, 2[1939]:129 - 30. 5. Bottari, Raccolta, 5:245 - 7 (G. Hamilton, 28 Jul. 1748). 6. See Add.41169, ff.36, 39v, 44 (R. Russel, 7 Sep.; J. Russel, 18 Nov. 1749, and 7 Apr. 1750).