 This lecture is entitled Thomas Jefferson and Neoclassical Architecture in America and Here we have a portrait of Thomas Jefferson alongside Monticello Monticello which was his home and his very elegant home that he designed and It's one of the buildings for which he is most famous now Thomas Jefferson obviously is an important figure in American history Because of his role in its founding and his role as a political figure, right? We know he Were the Declaration of Independence one of the most important documents in the founding of America and he was the third president of the United States, but For our purposes, he's very important as an Architectural designer and an architect essentially and he really helped to define a distinctly American architecture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and it's important to Know that he was not trained as an architect, but he was an extremely curious man he was an extremely well educated man and he traveled a lot saw the world and took what he learned and applied it to Architecture in a very passionate way So let's take a look a better look at this image here on the right and that is Monticello So here it is again Monticello write that again for you Monticello and It was built over the course of many years from about 1770 to 1809 and this is in Virginia and again that it was his home and I have it up here next to this image, which is actually from this 16th century in Italy and It is by a figure you should remember the name of and that is Palladio You might remember Palladio with regards to the English architect in ego Jones who we discussed In ego Jones was very Influenced by the work of the Italian Palladio and so was Thomas Jefferson and this building here is a home of villa in Italy and I think you can see there's a lot of similarities between these two buildings. We have that Traditional classical temple front with the columns across the front the triangular pediment And so that's imitated here at Monticello. We have a prominent dome at the top Which Thomas Jefferson copies here, so he's very interested in Classical architecture, right? That's what's sort of going on at this time the revival of classical architecture But it's seen through the lens of this Renaissance architect who wrote treatises about classical architecture, so It's a revival of Classical architecture through someone who had earlier sought to revive classical architecture. It's a really interesting Thing going on there But I think again you can really see a clear reference to this architect who Thomas Jefferson very much admired But and again, this is you know his private residence And it was an ongoing project for Thomas Jefferson the work on this building But it was really a labor of love, but one of the most important Projects for Thomas Jefferson was actually his work on the University of Virginia, so let's turn our attention to that now so here we have sort of the central Quad the central area of the University of Virginia with this rotunda at the end and The flanking buildings on the sides and let's get rid of that mark. I just put there Okay, so here are the flanking buildings on the sides and here's just a better image of that rotunda and again, this is the University of Virginia and this was near to Monticello and It dates to about 1818 through 26 and Jefferson established the University of Virginia in 1818 and it was really one of the most important projects of his life He references His work in founding the universe founding and building the University of Virginia on his tombstone You know, he wanted that to be one of the things that people remembered about him after his death and he believed very strongly in education and in Providing public education for people it was a thing that he was very passionate about and he envisioned in this little space here What he called an? Academical village Academical Village and that sounds very quaint and maybe even utopian and it kind of was he had this idealized view of this space where people could learn freely Exchange ideas further knowledge and really this is a quintessentially neoclassical philosophy really at the heart of this and Interestingly this rotunda that's kind of the focal point of the space was a library library and what's interesting about that is that The typical college or university design Would have put a chapel here right so a building for religion would have been the focal point Whereas Thomas Jefferson was forward-thinking and realized no religion should not be a part of that he thought Books and knowledge and information should be a part of that and that's a really interesting thing because we see the lasting impact of those enlightenment ideals right with that replaced religion with Knowledge and science and reason so we're still you know working out of that tradition and reaping the benefits of Enlightenment thinkers at this time So, you know just taking a look at the style here We once again have a clear reference to classical style and that same Palladian style with this temple front and the dome at the back Again, you know classical style seen through the lens of Palladio So you have some readings that discuss both Monticello and University of Virginia, so I won't discuss too much more But I just wanted to end by saying that I think this is a really interesting art historical monument Not only because it has such a lasting impact on American architecture, particularly universities But also because it reveals the spirit of American values at this time and it shows how the Re-application of classical principles matched those values