Stuart, James; Revett, Nicholas: The antiquities of Athens (Band 2) (London, 1825)

98

OF THE PROPYL MA.

The elegant and learned Society of Dilettanti, in the year 1764, employed Messieurs Revett,

Pars and Chandler, to visit and describe some of the most celebrated antiquities of Asia Minor. A

specimen of what they performed there was published soon after their return '; a work which does

p-reat honour to the good taste and liberality of the Society, and to the abilities of the artists they em-

ployed.

From Asia Minor the above-named gentlemen in their way homeward, passed through Attica

and the Peloponnesus. At Athens they stopped for some time, and made drawings of several anti-
quities, which, during my expedition to that city with Mr. Revett, in the year 1751, we had been
prevented from attempting. These drawings being the property of the Dilettanti, it is owing to the
generosity of that learned and liberal society, that this second volume is enriched with the Propylaea,
and that it now contains every example of ancient art and magnificence which is at present to be
found in the Acropolis of Athens.

The architectural plates are engraved from drawings, the accuracy of which will not be doubted,
when it is known they were made by my old fellow-traveller Mr. Revett. The basso relievos are
copied from very elegant sketches designed by the late Mr. Pars, whose premature death, while he
assiduously cultivated at Rome a most promising genius, will make his loss long regretted by those who
shall see his works. The view of the Propylaea is engraved from a drawing also made by Mr. Pars on

the spot.

As I was not present at the admeasurements taken, and the researches made there by those gen-
tlemen, I have little opportunity of saying any thing new on the subject, or of making any remark that
has not already appeared in the relations of other travellers. The prints form the valuable part of this
chapter : in my attempt to illustrate them I shall principally have recourse to Meursius, who, in his
treatise on the Acropolis of Athensb, has with his accustomed diligence collected from ancient authors
many particulars belonging to this building : such of his quotations as apply most aptly to the subject
1 shall here transcribe, beginning, as he does, with Pausanias, who says, " There is only one entrance
to the Acropolis, it being in every remaining part of its circuit, a precipice, and fortified with strong
walls. This entrance was fronted by a magnificent building, called the Propylaaa, covered with roofs

aversion by ordering for him the worst horses that could
be found on the road, and at length Stuart, feeling their inso-
lence intolerable, determined on quitting their company, and to
turn off to Salonica. To accomplish this he found it necessary
to feign illness at a village named Langathia, which is twelve or
fifteen miles from that city; but here he soon had reason to sus-
pect that his life was endangered in consequence probably of the
aspiring aghas fearing, lest from the ill treatment he had received,
he might cause some representations to be made, should he arrive
at Constantinople, injurious to their pretensions. Among other
suspicious circumstances, Stuart now discovered that a hadjee of
the retinue remained behind to execute some commission of the
agha respecting him, and at length their malevolent intentions
became so apparent, that he found his only resource was to effect
his escape to Salonica ; for which purpose, he contrived about
night-fall, to inveigle from the khan, or house they had put up at,
the tchochodar who had been left behind at his own solicitation,
to conduct him by sea, and being still armed, he ventured to ex-
press to him his apprehensions, and at length made him offers of
reward for conducting him safely to Salonica, increasing them
to 500 sequins, which the treacherous Turk refused, saying,
" Your offers are great, but if you get me in your power you '11
kill me." Stuart now felt that no time was to be lost; he in-
stantly made the best of his way to a place of concealment, and
hid himself among some reeds and bushes. In this situation
during the night he saw many different parties searching for him
with lighted torches, who afterwards made fires round the thicket,
but a heavy rain coming on drove them from their watch-fires.
Finding the Turks had returned to the village, he gained before
day-break the principal road, and after having changed the
character of his dress by converting his sash into a turban, and

leaving behind him his scarlet garment, and by counterfeit-
ing idiotcy, for which the Turks have a sort of veneration, he
acquired the protection of some Epirotes whom he happened to
meet, and with whom he arrived at the house of Mr. Paradise, the
British consul at Salonica, where he experienced a most hos-
pitable reception, and by whose means he afterwards recovered
his baggage from the village where his escape was deemed truly
miraculous. Stuart was at length joined by Revett at Sa-
lonica on the 18th of February, 1754, where they remained
till the 20th of April following. Here they delineated the
chief antiquities of the place, but the plague breaking out,
and finding new obstacles opposed to proceeding with their re-
searches in Greece, they resolved not to risk what they had
already acquired, but to return, by way of Smyrna, to England.
In quitting Salonica they passed along the Euripus, and ar-
rived at Andros, and from thence sailed to Smyrna, where they
again embarked, and happily arrived at Marseilles. Thus
the unfortunate conflict with Logotheti, united with the sub-
sequent perilous adventure at Langathia, was productive of
a serious calamity to our artists, and to the art itself, for
the full completion of their great undertaking was on that
account not then accomplished, and thence possibly resulted
the procrastinated and posthumous publication of this vo-
lume.

See paper printed from a relation by Stuart, of the principal
part of the above circumstances, to Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore,
and circulated by Mr. Caldwell, the engraver, in .1804, a copy of
which is now in the British Bluseum. LEI>-~\

a Ionian Antiquities, &c. by K. Chandler, M.A. F.S.A.
N. Revett, architect, and TV'. Pars, painter.

b Meursii Cecropia, sive de Arce Athenarum, C. VI.

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