Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

One point to make here is that Jefferson chose to follow the sense of taste and decorum in Palladio’s work, and to consider the building with reference to ideas of proportion and balance, rather than try to pile up an exuberant display of pomp and ornament in the Baroque manner. The house is characterized by its simplicity, and it has an air of repose about it that contrasts with the agitation of some Baroque interiors (such as the Wieskirche, Figure 11, or the Brighton Pavilion, Figure 3, which is not normally classified as Baroque, but since it uses all the same devices — combinations of architecture, sculpture, and illusionistic painting — and has much the same effect, I am inclined to think that it is Baroque in a way, even though the architectural detail is a Western idea of the Chinese). Monticello is not copied from a single Italian or English building, but has absorbed the general idea of Palladio’s villas and, working with the underlying principles, Jefferson designed a rather original building suited to his own needs, but clearly belonging to the Palladian tradition. In fact what happened is that Jefferson first designed and built an ‘English Palladian’ house, and then over many years, and after he had travelled (particularly in France) it was adapted with French refinements and elegancies, such as the dome. He had seen this arrangement at a grand house in Paris (the Hôtel de Salm) and adapted it for his own use.