Monticello's Dome
Thomas Jefferson began the long, tedious job of building his dream house in 1770 at the age of twenty-five. Along with being a congressman, and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was also the architect of Monticello. The original Monticello was built to take on conventional Palladian features. However, as Jefferson's public career kept him away from Monticello for long periods of time, including five years spent as the nation's representative to France, Monticello's design began to change. In this report I will concentrate on the dome, one of the major additions. I will quickly tell you a little background information of Monticello. Monticello is located near Charlottesville, Virginia on a hill that stands 867 feet above sea level. "When standing on top if the mountain, if one looks eat from the house over the Rivanna River to the gentle hills of Albemarle County. Facing the west one can spend hours watching the shifting light patterns on the Blue Ridge Mountains. And if one stands on the north terrace, one can see the University of Virginia" (Urofsky 21). Following Peter Jefferson's (Thomas Jefferson's father) death, Thomas Jefferson was given a large amount of land, including several in Albemarle County
Although Jefferson was the architect of Monticello, he consulted with others so that his designs could be implemented successfully. Jefferson brought in skilled carpenters, blacksmiths and architects to aid him with Monticello. The designer, which might not have been Jefferson, was not daunted by the problem of countering these balustrades around the base of the dome. After living in Paris and visiting its great public buildings as well as the city and county houses of the nobility, Monticello seemed small and provincial to Jefferson. "He declared himself "violently smitten" with the Hotel de Salm in Paris, now the Museum of the Legion of Honor across the Seine from the Louvre. He went to look at it often from the Tuileries, and this one - story town house with a dome certainly influenced him as he sat out to remodel Monticello"(Urofsky 93). Jefferson remodeled other parts of Monticello but the dome was the major addition. Influenced by the new architecture he had seen in France, both the octagonal dome and the one - story lines of the remodeled Monticello, take on characteristics of Hotel de Salm. Jefferson also takes the idea of balustrades running completely around the dome and the whole house. Balustrade is a railing supporting balusters which is one of a number of closely spaced supports for a railing: n. ("Baluster"). The fantastic dome covering Jefferson's house is unique in early American architectural history. When designing the plans for Monticello's dome, Jefferson reached it by looking at pervious buildings with dome's. Monticello's dome gives a monumental quality to the house that makes it easily recognized over any other American house. Monticello according to its first plan was infinitely superior to all other houses in America, in point of taste and convenience; but at that time Jefferson had studied taste and the fine arts in books only. His travels in Europe have supplied him with models; he has appropriated them to his design; and his new plan, the execution of which is already much advanced, will be accomplished before the end of next year, and then his
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Approximate Word count = 1413
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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