INTRODUCTORY
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919; The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, Volume I | ||
V. Taste for Architecture
Jefferson was always interested in every department of the Fine Arts. While serving as Visitor of the College of William and Mary during his Governorship, he had been instrumental in adding a course of that character to the professorship of ethics; and in his scheme of education addressed to Peter Carr, in 1814, instruction was to be given in civil architecture, painting, sculpture, and the theory of music. He played on the violin with skill; had been a patron of Caracchi; and it was at his instance that Houdon was employed to model the full length statue of Washington and the bust of Lafayette. He was a sympathetic correspondent of Peale and Trumbull, and an active member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
But it was in architecture that he felt the most penetrating interest, and it was also in this art that he displayed an original talent almost comparable to the genius which he evinced in political science; indeed, it has been said of him by several critics of distinction that his influence in this more or less private province has been just
But it has been correctly said of Jefferson that he used his talent for architecture for other purposes besides the mere gratification of his sense of beauty. A sense of practical fitness too was reflected in all his designs, which ranged from the Capitol at Richmond and the temples and cloisters at the University of Virginia, to the jails of Cumberland and Nelson counties; and from the mansions of his friends at Bremo and Farmington to a chicken coop at Pantops, his outlying farm. What had nourished this taste in the beginning? He had visited Annapolis, Philadelphia and New York, in 1766, before the
Jefferson was the son of a planter, and had come into the world in a plain house, in a sparsely inhabited neighborhood, removed only by a few years from the secluded
The first monument of his genius was the most beautiful; the house at Monticello was pronounced by a cultivated and travelled French nobleman to be the handsomest private residence in America. The environment at the time of its foundation offered such extraordinary obstacles to a builder that they would have discouraged any one who lacked the sanguine and resourceful temper of Jefferson. The nearest point from which he could obtain supplies of any sort was a small village; and even this afforded but a paucity of the rarer materials for construction; and no skilled mechanics at all. He created substitutes for the latter by training intelligent
In those times, there were no professional architects at work in America. All building, even along the most ambitious lines, was in the hands of handicraftsmen who were guided by principles that had been brought in with the early emigration,-to be later on, perhaps, modified by novelties which had been introduced by the most recent comers. Not elegance, but utilitarian and economic purposes were alone kept in view. Jefferson, however, had beauty, utility, and economy all in his vision; and he was fully competent to serve as his own architect, whether design or practical specifications were demanded.
Monticello is the most remarkable of all his structures because it was the fruit of his taste and discernment before either had been broadened and chastened by a study, on the ground, of the splendid architectural monuments of Europe. It is true that the mansion was not finished until after his return from his foreign mission, but already in 1782, the Marquis de Chastellux, a visitor, was so impressed with its charm that he thought it deserving of a minute description in the general record of his travels. Mr. Jefferson, he said, was the first American who had consulted the fine arts to find out how to shelter himself best from the weather. The house was begun in 1769, and completed in 1801, and during that long interval, the original design was modified in one important
This great master had influenced the grouping of many planters' residences in Virginia, previous to Monticello, through the style of architecture known by his name, which had been transmitted from England to colonial builders; but there was no such example of his work there, even in an extremely modified form, as was presented later in the design and structure of Jefferson's mansion. As a matter of fact, there was no exact representation of that mansion to be found in the plates of either Palladio, or his English disciple, Gibbs; it was, in reality, a reversion to the owner's early studies because it fulfilled the purpose he had in view better than any specific plan already in shape for immediate use in the drawings of his favorite architect, for whom he was
It was always the public building that aroused the most enthusiasm in him as an architect. As early as 1776, he brought in a bill in the General Assembly which provided that, when the State Government should be removed to Richmond, six entire squares of ground should be reserved there as sites for the Capitol, a great Ball of Justice, the offices of the Executive Board, and the additional structures intended for other public purposes. This combination of squares, broad streets, and noble buildings was expected by him to serve as an imposing monument that would always hold up before the eyes of the Virginian people the most splendid examples of the architectural art. Such a scheme was altogether unexampled in American history up to that date; and not until recent years has it been carried out by any foreign or domestic community to the degree projected in the mind of Jefferson.
He was very solicitous, while in France, to give all the assistance then in his power to improve the taste of his countrymen as reflected in their public buildings; his plan for doing this was to send over the drawing of .some noble model whenever such an edifice was to be erected; and in order to inform himself of the wide range of models of that kind in European countries, he was not content to study those in Paris alone, but travelled through England, Holland, Italy, and Southern France on a tour of inspection. In the course of these journeys, he gathered up a large collection of books on architecture, which further increased the weight of his advice. Among the notable structures that are to be credited to him is the Capitol at Richmond, which, at his suggestion, was built along the lines of the Maison Carrée at Nimes, one of the most "beautiful morsels" of architecture, in his opinion, if not the "most precious," surviving from a remote antiquity. The Capitol is said to be the first direct imitation of a classical edifice to be found in the United States; and while it did not conform exactly to the model sent over by him, it has, nevertheless, always remained a permanent memorial to the purity of his taste.
There was now perceptible, in different parts of the young Republic, a tendency to erect public buildings of large dimensions. Naturally, this was most obvious in the plans for the national capitol at Washington. Jefferson was, at this time, Secretary of State, and the location of the new District of Columbia fell within the jurisdiction of that department. A trace of his early scheme for the squares and public buildings in Richmond is to be detected . in his suggestion as to the use to be made of the area of land set apart for the Capitol, the President's House, and the Town Hall. The plan
He was able to make his predilections more distinctly felt after he assumed the Presidency, since the Capitol, the White House, and the Department buildings were still unfinished. He chose as architect a man who was even more of an admirer of classic models than himself, for Mr. Latrobe favored a return, not simply to classicism in general, but to the original Greek form of it. Jefferson, through this appointment, not only stamped his own taste on the Capitol and the White House as far as possible in their incomplete state, but in the public edifices afterwards built in the other cities of the Union, he was able to carry out his architectural preference without obstruction or interference. His aim now, as formerly, was to make the architecture of the classic era the characteristic architecture of America; and in this ambition, which he pursued consistently, he, fortunately for his own success, had the support of a public opinion which he himself had done so much to confirm and expand.
INTRODUCTORY
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919; The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, Volume I | ||