Inspired the tenets of European art and architecture, it was designed by Jefferson himself — a fine architect — in the style of French and Italian buildings of the 18th century. But Monticello is also home to a much more dramatic and abominable story — that of the slaves who lived there.
Many of the founding fathers were polymaths, men with extensive knowledge on different subjects, and Thomas Jefferson was no exception. He was a well-versed scholar, a brilliant inventor, businessman and writer but also a very talented architect. Although his major legacy remains the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson has influenced modern American society in many ways. It is still possible to admire his talent as an architect by visiting some of the buildings he designed, among which the most iconic is Monticello.
Monticello is the home where Thomas Jefferson lived for most of his life but it took him nearly 40 years of designing and re-designing to achieve his ideal of architectural perfection. While serving as a Minister of the United States in France , Jefferson was able to travel around Europe and see with his own eyes the masterpieces of classical and neo-classical architecture which he had only known from textbooks.
Monticello had been built in but the numerous works of remodelling which continued throughout most of his presidency delayed its completion until Monticello is a visually striking building on the summit of a metre-high peak located just outside Charlottesville in the state of Virginia. The structure has 43 rooms, 33 of which are part of the house itself while the rest are divided among the pavilion and the South Terrace.
The rooms still feature some of the original furniture and have been restored to their Jefferson-era state by the homonymous foundation. Another noticeable feature of this estate is its stunningly beautiful grounds and gardens, which include a flower garden and adjacent botanic laboratory, a vegetable garden where Jefferson grew more that varieties of vegetables, and fruit gardens which provided the estate with over varieties of peaches, grapes and apples.
Levi was a US naval officer who had a profound respect for Jefferson and who spent a considerable amount of money to preserve the estate.
When Thomas Jefferson was born, in , the economic power of the Southern states was almost entirely built on free labour provided by slaves. A lifelong book lover, Jefferson began his architectural collection while a student. Although never formally trained as an architect, Jefferson, both while a student and then later in life, expressed dissatisfaction with the architecture that surrounded him in Williamsburg, believing that the Wren-Baroque aesthetic common in colonial Virginia was too British for a North American audience.
In an oft-quoted passage from Notes on Virginia , Jefferson critically wrote of the architecture of Williamsburg:. There are no other public buildings but churches and court-houses, in which no attempts are made at elegance.
Thus, when Jefferson began to design his own home, he turned not to the architecture then in vogue around the Williamsburg area, but instead to the classically inspired architecture of Antonio Palladio and James Gibbs.
Construction began in when the hilltop was first cleared and leveled, and Jefferson moved into the completed South Pavilion two years later. Jefferson left both Monticello and the United States in when he accepted an appointment as America Minister to France. Over the next five years, that is, until September when Jefferson returned to the United States to serve as Secretary of State under newly elected President Washington, Jefferson had the opportunity to visit Classical and Neoclassical architecture in France.
And although Jefferson never went so far as Rome, the influence that the Pantheon C. From this year until , Jefferson diligently redesigned and rebuilt his home, creating in time one of the most recognized private homes in the history of the United States. In it, Jefferson fully integrated the ideals of French neoclassical architecture for an American audience. In this later construction period, Jefferson fundamentally changed the proportions of Monticello. Along with Monticello, Jefferson the architect is best known for designing the University of Virginia.
Jefferson designed the most ambitious of the original buildings, the Rotunda, on the model of the Roman Pantheon. In addition to planning public buildings, Jefferson designed Monticello and several other Virginia homes, often for friends.
He designed his retreat home, Poplar Forest , in the shape of an octagon, a form that intrigued Jefferson as an architect. Jefferson applied his design skills not only to buildings but to almost anything he saw.
On a larger scale, he planned cities and landscapes.
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