A Newly-Discovered Drawing by James Stuart

Abstract

As the architect of the Greek Doric Temple at Hagley, it has long been acknowledged that James ‘Athenian’ Stuart was a pioneer of the neo-classical movement in Britain; yet his career is not well documented, and, until the restoration of Spencer House, scholarly attention had focused upon the publication of The Antiquities of Athens and its influence on the development of the Greek Revival. Recent research has revealed, however, that Stuart’s source material was eclectic, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman motifs to those derived from the Renaissance and baroque. Without doubt, one of his formative influences was Andrea Palladio, with whose publications and buildings he was thoroughly familiar by the end of his sojourn in Italy in 1751. Indeed, one of the reasons Stuart gave for publishing The Antiquities of Athens was the dearth of examples of the Doric and Ionic orders given in the Quattro Libri dell’Architettura , while his visit to Pola in 1750; must have been made with Palladio’s description of the Istrian monuments in mind. Presumably Stuart hoped to establish his own credentials by publicizing Palladio’s mistakes in measurement, much as Desgodetz had done some seventy years earlier with the antiquities of Rome.