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Recording antiquity<\/h3>\n
Meanwhile two British architects, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, spent three years in Athens in the early 1750s measuring and drawing many of the ancient buildings. They took the fruits of their work back to England in 1755 and, after a long delay during which Stuart bought Revett\u2019s interest in the drawings, the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens was published in 1762. Three further volumes appeared over the following decades, the last in 1816. The work of Stuart and Revett was but a major part of a wider movement. Several volumes on Roman antiquities, including Charles-Louis Cl\u00e9risseau\u2019s Antiquities of N\u00eemes (1778), also appeared.<\/p>\n
Although neither Stuart nor Revett designed many buildings, their publication made them famous, especially Stuart, who earned the nickname \u201cAthenian\u201d Stuart. But one very active and successful architect followed in their footsteps, making and publishing accurate drawings of ancient buildings, the Scotsman Robert Adam. Adam traveled to Italy in search of Palladian inspiration, but he met Cl\u00e9risseau and the two men traveled together to Split in Croatia to make measured drawings of the enormous palace of the emperor Diocletian. The drawings were published in 1764.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026we flatter ourselves, we have been able to seize, with some degree of success, the beautiful spirit of antiquity, and to transfuse it with novelty and variety, through all our numerous works.\u201d Robert Adam, preface to The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam Esquires<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So during the second half of the 18th century, architects and clients, especially in Britain, became aware for the first time of the exact details and proportions of the buildings of ancient Greece. Their knowledge of the Roman world was also enhanced. This was true especially of Roman domestic buildings\u2014hitherto temple architecture had been the main source for architects; with the excavations of Pompeii and Adam\u2019s work at Split much more was known about Roman houses and palaces.<\/p>\n
Robert Adam<\/h3>\n
This work had a huge impact on architecture. Adam\u2019s delicate style of interior decoration, for example, owes much to his studies of Roman wall-painting, but also draws on Greek motifs, such as vine patterns, and ideas about the artistic style of the Etruscans.<\/p>\n
At Syon House in Middlesex, he even incorporated genuine ancient Roman marble columns, hauled out of the River Tiber, into one of the interiors. These stunning columns are adorned with capitals inspired by Greek architecture and topped with gilded statues of the type the Romans might have placed on a triumphal arch. Adam, though influenced by scholarship, was not afraid to mix up sources in order to create a dramatic effect.<\/p>\n
\nNeoclassical motifs<\/h4>\n
![\"Neoclassical](\"https:\/\/www.sribno.com\/architecturallife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Neoclassical-motifs.jpg\")
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