An Inquiry into Thomas Jefferson's Ideas of Beauty Author(s): Kenneth Hafertepe Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Society

of Architectural Historians, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 216-231 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/991591 . Accessed: 09/11/2012 17:38
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press and Society of Architectural Historians are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

http://www.jstor.org

An

Inquiry
of

into

Thomas

Jefferson's

Ideas

Beauty

HAFERTEPE KENNETH Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts

hileThomasJeffersonhas long been knownas a man of the Enlightenment, the relation of Enlightenment aesthetic philosophy to Jefcriticismand to his own work art and architectural ferson's as an architecthas never been clearly articulated.In large partthis is becauseJeffersonleft no lengthy treatiseon criticism or design, but only a number of somewhatfragmentarystatementson variousarts.However, a carefulstudy of and these statements,of his architectural landscapedesigns, will help to clarifythe nature andof his philosophical library of Jefferson'saesthetic thought. An understandingof the worksof Enlightenmentaestheticphilosophers, particularly the Scottish philosopher Henry Home (perhaps better knownas Lord Kames)allowsus to tracethe broadoutlines of Jefferson'saesthetic philosophy,to note specific artistic subjects and architecturalforms for which Jefferson and and other Enlightenmentthinkerssharedan admiration, to a better sense of the cultural work that Jefferson get expectedthe artsto perform. The influenceof Kameson Jefferson'saestheticthinkhas been known since Eleanor Davidson Berman's pioing 1947 study ThomasJeffersonAmong the Arts. neering belief and Kames's Jefferson's However,Bermaninterpreted in a sense of beauty as protoromantic;she assumed that Enlightenment thought invariablyprivileged reason over primarysensation or emotion. Three decades later, when (1762) was displayed of Jefferson's copy of Elements Criticism at The Eye of Thomas in the major exhibition Jefferson the

National Galleryof Art, the cataloguestatedthat "perhaps no other writer had as much influence on Thomas Jefferson'sphilosophyof artas did Lord Kames"but claimedthat Kamesreliedheavilyon Locke and the ancients.This characterization was true enough, but it ignored the way in which Kames (and FrancisHutcheson before him) modified classical antiquity'sidealization of rustic virtue and modified Locke's empirical method by positing the existence of innate senses of virtue and beauty; nor did it of trenchantapplication this theoryto Kames's acknowledge architecture,painting, sculpture,and landscape literature, BainterO'Neal compiledhis catgardening.WhenWilliam he s alogueofJefferson FineArtsLibrary, did not includeElements of Criticism.This may well have been based on a of characterization Kames'sbook as primarilyliterarycriticism,but it suggeststhe way in whichmodernscholarshave failed to see the relationshipbetween Enlightenmentcriticism and creative practice. While Jefferson'sreading was broadand critical,Kames'smoral and aestheticphilosophy had a direct and profound influence on the Virginian. A close examinationof Kamesianpreceptswill help to illuminateJeffersonianaesthetics.1 Jeffersonhad a complexattitudetowardthe relationof reason and emotion. Moreover,he did not see neoclassical forms as being more "rational"or "enlightened" than Renaissanceor Baroqueforms.Nor did he professa theory of associationsthat would incorporateadmirationfor the Roman Republic or hostility toward Great Britainas fac-

tors in aesthetic judgment, or believe that neoclassical buildingscould instill classicalvirtue by association. Rather, Jeffersonbelievedthat there were two types of and hence two causes of beauty.Formal beautybeauty knownto Enlightenmentphilosophers absoluteor intrinas sic beauty-was inspiredby harmoniesof form or color; in architecture,beautywas causedby good proportionsjudiciouslyenrichedby elegantornament.Functionalbeautyalso known as relative or comparativebeauty-could be based on the accuracyof a painting'simitation of natureor on the utility of a building.The formerwas determinedby a sense of beauty,literallya sense of proportion,which was innate in all people, and the latter was determinedby the use of the rationalfaculty. Jeffersonbelieved that paintingscould appealboth to the senseof beauty(if the canvas harmoniously was designed), and to the sense of morality(if it told a moralstory).ForJeffersonthe moralsensewas alwaysdistinctfrom the aesthetic sense, but they functionedin a similarfashion. attitude towardthe relationof reason ThomasJefferson's andemotionin moralandaestheticphilosophywas complex. aestheticphilosophers, did he And,likemanyEnlightenment not make the sharp distinctionbetween neoclassicismand His other,earlierforms of classicism. centralgoal, however, was to createa chasteclassicalstyle thatwould be appropriate not just for Americans for all people. but Jefferson's Introduction to Enlightenment Criticism ThomasJefferson introduced the keyworksof Enlightwas to enmentphilosophy-includingthat of Kames-in Williams"It he burg,Virginia. wasmy greatgoodfortune," remembered "thatDr. WilliamSmallof Scotland then prowas yearslater, fessorof mathematics, man profoundin most of the useful a branchesof science,with a happytalent of communication, correctandgentlemanly and and manners, an enlarged liberal mind."Smalltaughtthe youngJefferson only mathematnot ics andsciencebutalso"regular in lectures ethics,rhetoric, and belleslettres." American In in the eighteenth early and colleges nineteenthcenturies,the studyof rhetoricand literarycriticism afforded principal the to aesthetics. opportunity address soon attached me and to Small, Jeffersonrecounted,"became mademe his dailycompanion whennot engagedin the school; and from his conversation got my firstviews of the expanI sion of science and of the system of things in which we are Beforereturning Europein 1764,Smallhadmade to placed." a profoundimpacton the youngJefferson.2 Smallmay have used Kames'sEssays and Upon Morality NaturalReligion as his ethics text;in any case,Jeffer(1751)

son's first edition of this volume, with his marginaliain it, survivesin the Libraryof Congress.Jefferson'sclose study of Kames'swritings continued when he studied law under George Wythe between 1762 and 1766.Wythe assignedhis student Kames'sPrinciples Equity(1760), a great many of abstractsof whichJeffersoncopied into his "EquityCommonplaceBook."On a "Listof Booksfor a PrivateLibrary" drewup for RobertSkipwithin 1771, Kames's thatJefferson was Principles Equity firstin the section on law,Elements of of Criticism firstin the section on criticismof the fine arts, was and elsewhereJeffersonincludedthe Essays Morality on and NaturalReligion3 On the list of books Jefferson drew up for Skipwith, two categoriesare of particular relevance:"FineArts"and "Criticismof the Fine Arts."More than seventy-fivetitles were listed under "Fine Arts," and these were almost entirely literary.The only titles relevant to painting, gardening, or architecturewere Thomas Whately's Observationson ModernGardening Daniel Webb'sInquiryinto and the Beautiesof Painting.The section on "Criticismof the Fine Arts"includedseventitles.In additionto worksof a literarybent-Edward Capell'sProlusions (1759), a compilation of poetry,and SamuelJohnson'sDictionary (1755)-it also listed several philosophical and aesthetic treatises. Adam Smith'sTheory MoralSentiments (1759) attempted of to place moral knowledge on a basis of human sympathy, while Thomas Reid'sInquiryinto the HumanMind (1764) criticized the epistemological skepticism of David Hume from a position of common-sense realism. But the three titles that topped the list were Lord Kames'sElementsof EdmundBurke's into Criticism, Philosophical Inquiry the Oriour Ideas of the Sublimeand Beautiful(1757), and gin of William Hogarth'sTheAnalysis Beauty(1753).4 of It is perhapssurprisingthat the young Jeffersonchose to list Hogarth's in Analysis Beauty, view of Hogarth'scriof of the Palladianarchitectureof Lord Burlingtonand tique his circle as un-English and his preferencefor the Baroque work of Sir ChristopherWren and James Gibbs. But the idea that most closely related to Jefferson'slater aesthetic thinkingwas Hogarth'snotion thatthe beautyof formswas caused by the presence of gracefullycurving lines, which Hogarth called "the line of grace"and which one sensed directly,without the use of the rationalfaculty. In his essayon the sublime,EdmundBurkearguedthat the human passions, especially sympathy,are responsible for our ideas of beauty and sublimity.Humanity'sideas of beautyarose from the need for the preservationof society, through cooperativesocial behaviorand through men and women mating and reproducing,whereasideas of the sublime were relatedto self-preservation, terrorwas inspired as
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

217

by the apprehensionof pain or death. The qualities that inspired the idea of beauty were smallness, smoothness, gradualvariation,and delicacy,which Burkeconsideredto be essentially feminine. The formal characteristicsthat inspiredideas of the sublimewere power,vastness,infinity, magnitude, and magnificence-all of which Burke associated with masculinity. As with other Enlightenment philosophers,Burkeinsisted that ideas of beautyare driven by the passionsratherthan reason. The writings of the third member of this triumvirate, Henry Home, Lord Kames, are the most significantto an understandingof Jefferson'saesthetic thinking.A Scottish juristwho wrote extensivelyon subjectslegal, moral, agricultural, and critical, Kames was a distant cousin of the philosopherDavid Hume. In terms of moral and aesthetic philosophy, Kames was a follower of Francis Hutcheson, professorof moralphilosophyat the Universityof Glasgow, whose Inquiryinto the Originalsof Our Ideasof Beautyand Virtue (1725) blended the idealism of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third earl of Shaftesbury, with the empirical method ofJohn Locke. Shaftesbury arguedfor the existence of an innate sense of morality and beauty; Hutcheson applied Locke's distinction between simple ideas, those immediatelyperceived,and complex ideas, those that arise from rational contemplation, and argued that the most importantideasof beautyandvirtuearesimpleideas,sensed ratherthan reasoned.Hutcheson died in 1746, but his philosophy formedthe basisfor worksby such philosophersas Adam Smith, David Hume, and Lord Kames. Indeed, Kames applied Hutcheson's philosophical principles to poetry,plays,novels, painting,architecture,landscapegardening, and even opera. Perhaps most significant for our of purposes,Kames devoted a full chapterof Elements Criticismto "Gardeningand Architecture."5 Kames argued that there are two types of beauty, intrinsicand relative.Intrinsicbeautyis an idea that is created when certainqualitiesin the materialworld stimulate the innate sense of beauty. He followed Hogarth in suggestingthatwindingsof a serpentineriverinspiredthoughts of beauty,but he was equallysurethat the good proportions of a building or a column could also inspire the idea of beauty.This type of beautyrequiredno use of the rational faculty to be perceived, nor even comparison to other objects;it was self-evidentto anyonewhose senses-particularlythe sense of beauty-were not impaired.The formal qualities that stimulatedthe sense of beauty to create the idea of beauty were "uniformityamidstvariety."In architecture uniformityinvolved regularity,order, and proportion; variety involved ornament as well as breaking up overly large forms. Kames declaredthat "we are framedby
218
JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

natureto relishproportion" that "inbuildingsintended and to please the eye, proportionis not less essentialthan regThe second type of beauty,relative ularityanduniformity." beauty, is "founded on the relation of objects" and thus and requires"anact of understanding reflection"to be perceived. Utility, for example, could lend beauty to objects that lack intrinsicmerit. "Anold Gothic tower that has no beauty in itself, appearsbeautifulconsidered as proper to defend againstan enemy,"he wrote.6For Kames, intrinsic beautywas highly formalisticand dependentupon human sensibility,but relativebeautywas comparativeand dependent upon humanreason. In addition to discussingthe philosophicalprinciples that were applicableto architecture,Kames also addressed some currentissuesof architectural theory.ClaudePerrault, he noted, "maintained that the different proportions and assignedto each orderof columnsarearbitrary, that the of these proportionsis entirelythe effect of custom." beauty This, Kames asserted,
betrays ignoranceof human nature,which evidently delights in But as order,and propriety. withproportion, well as in regularity, out any acquaintance with humannature,a single reflectionmight have convinced him of his error; had that if these proportions not been agreeable,they couldnot have been establishedby originally Custom. Ifa thing be universal,it must be natural.7

Kameswas no admirerof French architectural theory or of French formal gardens;he wrote that the gardensof Versailles "are a lasting monument of a taste the most The viciousanddepraved."8 emergingBritishschool of picturesque landscaping,exemplifiedfor Kames by William Kent, was much more to his taste. He arguedthat "the situation of a great house ought to be lofty; for the relation betwixt an edifice and the ground it standsupon, is of the most intimate kind."9He had also suggested that the approachto a house should not be head-on, but "oblique." An indirect approachset the intervening objects and the house into motion, and thus contributedto the variety of the compositionbecauseeach step presenteda new view of the house.

Kames and Classicism In broadest terms, Kames was an advocate of classicism, workof mid-centurybut admiringof much of the Palladian also interested in the new Roman-basedclassicismof his young friendsRobertandJamesAdam.Columns,he noted, "besidetheir chief destinationof being supports,contribute to the peculiarexpressionwhich the destinationof a build-

ing requires: columns of different proportions, serve to he expressloftiness,lightness,&c. as well as strength."'0Yet believed that the Gothic style was appropriatefor rough, uncultivatedregions. The site of Inveraray Castle in Scotland-designed by Roger Morris and built between 1746 and 1761-"demanded" a house in the Gothic style, he wrote, and "everyonemust approveof the taste of its proprietor,"the duke of Argyll." The Enlightenment notions that all people were endowedwith a sense of beautyand that taste was uniform anduniversal reflectedthe egalitarianism optimismof the and era. However,such notions were hardto reconcilewith the fact-obvious even in the eighteenth century-that not all cultureshad preciselythe same taste in architecture art. or Kames(andHutchesonbeforehim) arguedthatthe artof all culturesshowedan appreciation uniformity for amidvariety, even thoughthe mannerin which the formsareornamented can differradically. in They also insistedthat localvariations benefitedfrom associations familiarity, of which are building relativeratherthan intrinsicor self-evident,and which can misleada people into thinkingthat their regionalvariations areuniversally valid.Associations, then, were for Hutcheson andKamesa lesseraestheticcategorythatinterfered with the enjoymentof intrinsicbeauty.2 Lord Kames was a friend and correspondent of the architects Robert and James Adam. Indeed, James Adam wrote an essay on architecturaltheory while in Rome in November 1762, the very year in which Kames published Elements Criticism. Adam's of unpublished essayis much concernedwith the issue of how to achieve"uniformity amidst variety."Regardingthe appearanceof interiors, he wrote that vaults and domes are conduciveto
the beauty and variety of movement in the section.... The former admit of great variety according to the form of the room, but the latterconsists only in the semicircle or in segments, all else are impure. A proper mixture of domes, vaults and coved ceilings and flat soffits over rooms of various shapes and sizes are capable of forming such a beautifulvarietyas cannot fail to delight and charm the instructed spectator.

Robert Adam saw himself as more practicaland less visionarythan his brother,and said so in one of his letters to Kames:
My brother James writes with that love and enthusiasm of architecture,which no one could feel that has not formed very extensive ideas of it. It is easy to tame and bringunder proper management these large views; and the detail of our profession comes naturally the man who understandsits great printo ciples, in the laws of beauty and grandeur: but the architect who begins with minutiae, will never rise above the race of those reptileartizanswho have crawled about and infested this countryfor many years.14

Adamacknowledged need for largeviews andfor approthe priatedetail,both of which were subsumedunderthe principles of beauty and grandeur.Moreover, the thing that distinguished the architect from "reptile artizans"was a familiaritywith philosophical ideas about the nature and principlesof taste. And, as Kameshad identified"undulating motion," as in a serpentineriver,as a source of beauty, so too the brothersAdamlinked "movement" architecto turalbeauty. Kames'sideas also found their way into lectures on architecture at the Royal Academy in London. Thomas Sandby,who lecturedon architectureat the academyfrom 1770 to 1798,instructedhis studentsthat "architecture cannot otherwiseentertainthe mind than by raisingagreeable emotions and exciting pleasing ideas,"a close paraphrase from Kames'schapteron "Gardeningand Architecture."'5 He also spoke of regularityand proportionas the principal means of producing intrinsic beauty. Moreover, David Watkin has recently demonstrated that Sir John Soane reliedheavilyon Kamesin his own RoyalAcademylectures, for his discussionof appropriate characterand the relation of architectureto its setting.16 Jefferson as Critic and Architect Jefferson'sbelief that all people possess distinct senses of moralityand beauty paralleledthe ideas of Kames.Jefferson's1787 letterto his nephewPeter Carr,who was aboutto mentor George begin his studiesof the law withJefferson's Wythe, was also very clear about the existence of a moral sense. "Manwas destined for society," Jeffersontold Carr. "His moralitythereforewas to be formedto this object.He was endowedwith a senseof rightandwrongrelativeto this. This sense is as much a part of his nature as the sense of of hearing,seeing,feeling;it is the truefoundation morality." beliefin the existenceof an innatemoralsense ForJefferson,
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

JamesAdamsawthe principleof movementas being crucial for the exteriorsof buildings as well, noting that "whatis so materialan excellence in landscapeis not less requisite for compositionin architecture, namely the varietyof contour, a rise and fall of the differentpartsand likewisethose great projectionsand recesseswhich producea broadlight and shade."'3 This concept of movement was to be incorporated into the preface of The Worksin Architecture of R.

andJ. Adamsome ten years later.

219

was fundamentallyegalitarian. "State a moral case to a The farmer decideit aswell, will ploughmananda professor. and often better than the latter,becausehe has not been led astrayby artificialrules."AlthoughJefferson discouraged Carr from attending lectures on moral philosophy, since moralitywas not the productof receivedwisdom but of an for innate faculty,he did list severalvolumes on "morality" Human him to read, including Locke's Essay Concerning and Jeffersondid Understanding Kameson NaturalReligion. not discussaestheticsin this letter,but the corollaryis selfevident:statean aestheticcaseto a plowmananda professor, and the farmerwill decidejust as well.17 In 1814 Jefferson expressed admiration for Kames's works in a letter to Thomas Law in which he drew on the of latter'sunderstanding the relationshipbetween the sense of moralityand the sense of beauty.When Law sent him a on Thoughts Instinctive Impulses,Jefcopy of his book Second ferson wrote from Poplar Forest that Kames was "one of of our ablest advocates" the moral sense. "I sincerely,then, believewith you in the generalexistenceof a moralinstinct. I think it is the brightestgem with which the human character is studded."Jefferson also reiterated his belief in a sense of beauty that was quite distinct from the sense of morality:
We have indeed an innate sense of what we call beautiful, but that is exercised chiefly on subjects addressed to the fancy. [Beautymight be perceived]throughthe eye in visible forms, as landscape, animalfigure, dress, drapery,architecture,the composition of colors, etc., or to the imagination directly, as imagery,style, or measure in prose or poetry, or whatever else constitutes the domain of criticism or taste, a faculty entirely distinct from the moral one.18

While JeffersonpraisedKames as a moral sense theorist, his use of the phrase "moralinstinct"is not found in Kamesbut in the writingsof another Scottish philosopher, Dugald Stewart,whom Jefferson met in Paris and greatly admired. belief thatmankindpossessesan innatesense Jefferson's of of proportioninformedhis discussionof the architecture in Noteson Virginia. Concerningthe Capitol, Williamsburg he noted that the lower, Doric order of its portico "is tolerablyjust in its proportionsand ornaments,save only that the intercolonnations are too large. The upper is Ionic, much too small for that on which it is mounted, its ornaments not proper to the order, nor proportioned within themselves.It is crownedwith a pediment,which is too high for its span."Yet,he was forced to conclude, "it is the most we Jeffersoncriticized pleasingpiece of architecture have."
220
JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

the Governor's Palace as "not handsome without," but nonetheless "capableof being made into an elegant seat." He characterized PublicHospitalandthe mainbuilding the of the College of William and Mary as "rude,mis-shapen piles, which, but that they have roofs, would be taken for brickkilns."He lamentedthe clumsy proportionsof large and expensivehouses thatindividuals erected;"to give these and taste would not increasetheir cost. It would symmetry of only changethe arrangement the materials,the formand combination of the members."In his discussion of architecture,Jefferson focused on proportion and ornament as to the determinants beauty,an emphasisthat corresponds of Kames'sbelief that formal qualities expressinguniformity amidstvariety inspire the idea of beauty.Jefferson'scomplaint about Williamsburgwas not that it was British but that it was poorly proportioned and poorly ornamented. The basis of Jefferson'scriticismof Williamsburgwas neither anti-British nor pro-American;rather, he sought an architecturethat would transcendregional variationsand appealto the sensibilitiesof all people.19 Jeffersonbelieved that tastewas naturalin that a sense of beautywas a part of human nature, but taste had to be nurtured and encouraged. He noted that the College of William and Mary had recently hired a professorto teach the fine arts, which would include architecture, and he hoped that "perhapsa sparkmay fall on some young subjects of naturaltaste, kindle up their genius, and producea Even Jefferreformationin this elegant and useful art."20 son's formulationof architectureas an "elegantand useful art"speaks to the dual focus of formal "intrinsicbeauty" and utilitarian"relativebeauty." Yet,as he wrote this in the 1780s,Jeffersonwas coming to believe that young subjects needed more than just a professorto teach them the rules of the arts;they needed concrete examplesof beautywith which to sharpentheir sensibility. The external form of the first Monticello, begun in 1768 and in progressfor most of the 1770s,conformedwith the ideals of "symmetryand taste"thatJeffersonfound so lacking in the buildings of his native state. As originally planned, the house consisted of a two-story temple form and lower wings with hipped roofs. The two-story portico had Doric columns for the first floor and Ionic for the secIn ond, while the wings were astylar. Enlightenmentterms, the massing and the bilateral symmetry of the facade while the mannerin which the wings resultedin uniformity, the deferredto the centralpaviliongaveit variety.Similarly, use of classical ornament throughout the building contributed to its uniformity, and the use of two different ordersfor the portico and no order for the wings achieved variety.

of By "varieties the field"Kamesseems to refer to the various points of view from which a three-dimensionallandscape could be observed and, perhaps,the changes of the seasonsin a garden.Jeffersonsaw the landscapepainteras the best gardener,while Kames consideredlandscapegardening as more difficultthan mere painting.AlthoughJeffersonandKamesdid not agreeon the relationship between and garden design, they were in fundamental painting agreementthat landscapegardeningwas a fine art. A number of landscapefeaturesat Monticello can be read as a reflectionof principlesfound in Kames's Elements Certainaspectsof picturesquelandscaping had of Criticism. alreadyappearedin Virginia:for example,Mount Airy in RichmondCounty was sited on an elevatedspot above the Rappahannock River and incorporated a meandering approach to its formal forecourt. But Jefferson built his house on a mountaintop.As we haveseen, Kameshadwritten that "the situation of a great house ought to be lofty" and that that the approachto a house should not be headon, but oblique. Perhapsthe most intriguinglink between the philosophy of Kames and the landscape design of Monticello relates to the walks that connect the main house with the two dependencies. Kames noted that observation points above gardensare common, "butno personhas thought of The Landscape as Art an artificial walkelevatedhigh abovethe plain. Such a walk Jefferson was clearly interested in Hogarth, Burke, and is airy,and tends to elevate the mind: it extends and varies Whately'sperspectiveson the naturallandscapeand land- the prospect: and it makes the plain, seen from a height, scape gardening.He bought a copy of Whately'sObserva- appearmore agreeable."25At Monticello,Jeffersondesigned tionsonModernGardening Parisin 1785 and carriedit on walks that house utilitarian spaces below but serve as a in his tour of English gardens in 1786. However, it was promenadeabove. The elevated walks certainlyallow for Kames'sphilosophy that provided the overarchingphilo- granderviews of the surroundingcountrysidethan could sophical structureinto which those ideas fitted. In a letter be had at groundlevel. AndJefferson,like Kames,believed writtento his granddaughter Ellen Randolphin 1805, then- that majesticviews of nature could elevate the mind, as is PresidentJeffersoninvokedthe authorityof Kames,noting clear in one of his most famous descriptions of his "own that the Scottish lord "has justly proved" that landscape dearMonticello,"writtenat Parisin 1786.Where, he asked, gardeningis "entitledto the appellationof a fine art. It is "hasnature spreadso rich a mantle under the eye? mounwe nearlyalliedto landscapepainting,and accordingly gen- tains, forests,rocks, rivers.With what majestydo we there erallyfind the landscapepainterthe best designerof a gar- ride above the storms!How sublimeto look down into the
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

Jeffersonhadnot yet been to Europewhen he designed the firstMonticello, and he had to rely on the books in his library-most notably Robert Morris'sSelectArchitecture (1755), James Gibbs'sRules Drawingthe SeveralPartsof for Architecture (1732), and Andrea Palladio's QuattroLibri (1570) in Giacomo Leoni's 1715 London edition, which he may well have consideredas cataloguesof those forms that appealedto the sense of beauty.Jeffersonused Palladionot for his plans or elevations but for good proportions and ornaments.As he laterwrote to JamesOldham, appropriate one of the carpentersat Monticello, "the first book on the orders ... is the essentialpart."21 The interior arrangements the first Monticello can of also be read in terms of certainkey Kamesianprecepts.In his discussion of architecture, Kames criticized having a large and spacious room immediatelyinside the door. "It looks little comparedwith the canopyof the sky,"he wrote, and at the same time "it gives a diminutiveappearanceto the rest of the house:passingfrom it, everyapartment looks little." He suggested that the largest room "ought to be reserved for company" because "a great room, which enlargesthe mind and gives a certainelevationto the spirAt its, is destined by nature for conversation." Monticello the portico originally led into a somewhat cramped stair hall, and the parlorwas the largest room in the house. In the second version of Monticello,Jeffersonvastlyenlarged the entry, creating a lobby for visitors and allowing more Jeffersonfound the need for a second privacyin the parlor. not as formalas the parlorbut able to accomlarge room, modatethe crushof visitorsto his home. The secondMonticello incorporated Jefferson manyof the buildingpractices had observed abroad,but, as we shall see, these practices were assimilatedthrough an aestheticphilosophy that was alreadyfully developed.22

Kames had praisedWilliam Kent's landscapegarden."23 dens, noting that landscapedesign

is painting a field with beautiful objects, naturaland artificial, disposed like colors upon a canvas. It requires indeed more genius to paint in the gardening way. In forming a landscape upon a canvas, no more is requiredbut to adjust the figures to each other: an artist who lays out ground in Kent'smanner,has an additionaltask, which is to adjust his figures to the several varieties of the field.24

221

workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, Jefferson'suse of the thunder,all fabricatedat her feet!"26 it sublimehere is distinctlyun-Burkean: is the aestheticsof exhilarationrather than the aesthetics of terror.The Virginian'susagewas backedby the philosophyof Kames,who noted that the views of beautifuland grandobjectsin a natural landscape"swell the heart to its utmost bounds, and raise the strongest emotion of grandeur.The spectator is which cannotbearconfinement consciousof an enthusiasm, nor the strictnessof regularityand order."Kameswas very much awareof the developingpicturesqueschool of British landscapegardening,and for Jefferson he could provide a philosophical explanationof how landscapearchitecture, and even specific styles and motifs of landscapearchitecture, fit into the Enlightenmentview of the world. in of Jefferson's descriptions the naturallandscape Notes notions on Virginia were consistentwith Enlightenment also of the beautiful and the sublime. "The passage of the Patowmacthrough the Blue ridge,"he wrote, "is perhaps He one of the most stupendousscenesin nature." described how the Shenandoahand Potomac Rivers crash together againstthe foot of a mountainbefore passingoff to the sea. To Jeffersonthe piles of rocks at the base of the mountain seemedevidenceof some ancientgeologicalconvulsion.But the distantview "is a true contrastto the fore-ground.It is as placid and delightful, as that is wild and tremendous." The artistNature presentsto the eye throughthe cleft of a mountain"asmall catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distancein the plain country,inviting you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around,to pass through For the breachand participateof the calm below."27 Jefferson, the organizing aesthetic principle was contrast, between ruggedness and smoothness, wildness and calm. to Kamesdevoted an entire chapterof Elements Criticism of in and "Resemblance Contrast," which he suggestedthat in one should landscapegardening
intermix in the succession, rude uncultivatedspots as well as unboundedviews, which in themselves are disagreeable, but in succession heighten the feeling of the agreeable objects. And we have nature for our guide, who in her most beautiful landscapes often intermixes rugged rocks, dirtymarshes, and barren stony heaths.28

to the parapet,and peep over it." The view down, he said, gave him a violent headache. Here Jefferson seems to be heading toward an invocation of Edmund Burke'sPhiloand into sophical Enquiry the Originof ourIdeasof theSublime the view from the edge of the bridge,and the posBeautiful: sibilityof a deadlyfall, inspiresfeelings of the sublime.Jefferson had not yet used the word sublime,however,and he did so only after descending "to the valley below."There "the sensation becomes delightful in the extreme. It is impossible for the emotions, arising from the sublime, to be felt beyond what they are here: so beautifulan arch, so elevated, so light, and springing,as it were, up to heaven, This the raptureof the spectatoris really indescribable!"29 was a distinctlyun-Burkeanuse of the concept of the sublime. For Burke,beautyand sublimityare two distinctpassions, inspired by qualities that are virtual opposites: beautifulobjects are small, sublime objectslarge;beautiful objects are smooth, sublime ones rugged;beautifulobjects are lovable, sublime objects fearsome,and so on. If Jefferson wasusing the sublimein Burke's manner,he would have the characterized view fromthe top as sublime,andthe view from below as beautiful.30 Jefferson,however,saw the bridge as inspiringbeauty and sublimityat the same time, and from the samevantage point; for him, sublimityis especiallyintense beauty.This parallelsthe thinkingof Kames,who observedthat "to look down upon objectsmakespartof the pleasureof elevation. Looking down becomes then only painfulwhen the object is so far below as to create dizziness:and even when that is the case, we feel a sort of pleasure mixt with the pain."31 This once again speaks to Jefferson's desire to build his house on a mountaintop. Though Burke differed from Kames andJeffersonon the precise natureof the sublime, the three were unanimous in their belief that beauty and sublimityare sensed, not reasoned.Their aesthetic debate of was carriedon well withinthe framework Enlightenment philosophy. Exciting Ideas of Beauty in Paris and Nimes Jefferson arrivedEurope with a fully developed aesthetic philosophy informed by Enlightenment authors such as Lord Kames. He held that all men possess an innate sense of beauty,that there is, as a result, a uniform and universal standardof taste, and that such a standardcould be determined by documentingwhich monumentshad receivedthe of approbation men of all epochs.SoJeffersonbelieved,but, having lived in Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia, he had not experiencedfirsthanda building likely to inspire such approbation.He found in France and especially in Paris

Even in his personificationof nature as an artist,Jefferson had precedentin the work of Kames. In his famousdescriptionof the NaturalBridgein Virginia, Jefferson wrote that "few men have the resolution" to walk to the edge of the bridge "andlook over into the abyss.You involuntarilyfall on your hands and feet, creep
222
JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

examplesboth of bad taste, usuallyBaroqueand overornawhich mented, and concreteexamplesof greatarchitecture, to his eye were classicaland chaste.It did not matterto Jefferson that a building he admiredhad been built as a tribute to the absolute power of a king, because beauty was intrinsic and not associational;the beauty of a building could be judgedonly by consultingthe common sense that all men possessed. Jeffersonwas eager to study firsthandthe Maison Carree at Nimes, a provincialRoman temple in the south of France.It was, he assured JamesMadison,"oneof the most if not the most beautifuland preciousmorsel of beautiful, architectureleft us by antiquity." Jefferson was certain of this estimationbecausethe building"hasthe suffrageof all At judges of architecturewho have seen it."32 the time he wrote Madison,Jeffersonhimself had not yet made his pilgrimageto Nimes, and he would not see it for anotheryear and a half.ButJeffersonknewit throughbooksandthrough conversation with several"goodjudges." Palladio,for examillustratedthe Maison Carreein his fourth book, notple, to ing that it was one of "manyother beautifulantiquities" be seen in Nimes. Another good judge, Charles-Louis Clerisseau,illustratedthe temple in the first number of a projectedvolume on the monumentsof Nimes. When he finally did see the Maison Carree,Jefferson wrote to the Comtesse de Tesse, "Here I am Madam,gazing whole hours at the Maison quarree,like a lover at his mistress." This emotionalcomment has usuallybeen interas a romanticeffusionto a female friend.But a close preted examinationof the rest of the letter suggeststhat in writing to a connoisseurlike Madamede TesseJeffersonwas trying to put on his best intellectual clothes. He reported that "from Lyon to Nimes I have been nourished with the remains of Roman grandeur." He was struck by the grandeurof Romanbuildings,which was self-evidentto all people, but whichwas especiallyappreciated those whose by sense of beauty had been nurtured and improved. The Roman ruins, he wrote, "havealwaysbrought you to my mind, becauseI knowyour affectionfor whateveris Roman and Noble." He thought of Madame de Tesse at Vien, at Orange,and at the Pont du Gard,but most of all at Nimes, "whereRomantaste, genius, and magnificenceexcite ideas In analogousto yours at every step."33 eighteenth-century aesthetictheory,ideaswere "excited" the mindwhen selfin evident qualitiesin naturestimulatedthe aestheticsense to createideas of beauty,grandeur, magnificence. or Jefferson associatedRoman taste with Madame de Tesse, but these were secondaryto the intrinsicbeauty personalassociations of these monuments, which excited the same ideas in the mind of Jefferson as they did in that of Madame de Tesse.

Farfrom a lightheartedeffusion,this letter outlines an aesthetic reactionthat could be expectedonly under Enlightenment aesthetictheory. ancientRomanclassicism, he also but Jeffersonadmired admired morerecentversionsof the classical style.He highly praisedcertainkey works of the French classicaltradition, such as the east front of the Louvre (the "Galeriedu LouLouisLeVau,andCharlesLeBrun, vre")by ClaudePerrault, andthe Garde-Meuble the PlaceLouisXV (nowthe Place on de la Concorde),by Ange-Jacques Gabriel.These "modem he wrote, "havealready receivedthe approbation buildings," of all good judges."34Jefferson considered beautyof these the buildingsto be self-evident,andif an architectural plebiscite were held these buildingswould be universallyacclaimed. Among more recent works, he approvedof the Hotel de Guimardby Claude-NicolasLedoux,the H6tel de Brunoy by Etienne-LouisBoullee,and the H6tel de Salm,by Pierre Rousseau.In his letter to Madamede Tesse,Jeffersonwrote that "whilein Paris,I was violentlysmittenby the H6tel de Salm,and used to go to the Tuileriesalmostdailyto look at it."Again,he useda veryemotionaltermto describe reachis but thisemotionwasboundup with the aesthetic tion, impact the buildinghad upon him.Jeffersonwas not a "revolutionas aryarchitect," he hassometimesbeen castin the twentieth he was impressedwith Boullee and Ledoux not century; becausethey rejectedthe classical traditionbut becausethey were partof it.35 The famous"Headand Heart"letter to MariaCosway further illuminates the relationship between reason and emotion in Jefferson'sarchitectural thinking.Jeffersonwas a great admirerof the dome of the Halle au Ble, a circular grain marketwith an open courtyard,designedby Nicolas Le Camusde Mezieresand completedin 1767.A dome was in placedover the courtyard 1782;architects Jacques-Guillaume LegrandandJacquesMolinos used the doming system of Philibert Delorme. In the letter to Cosway, headstatesthatthe objectof the visit to the Halle Jefferson's au Ble was "publickutility"-which Kameswould categorize as relative beauty, based on reason. But the heart remindsthe head that he had declaredthe dome to be "the most superbthing on earth,"and that it surpassed anything he had seen in Paris.Even the head, more rationaland calculating than the heart, could show enthusiasmfor some aspects of architecture.The heart was more interested in the companywith whichJeffersontouredthe building,saying, "I never trouble myself with domes nor arches,"but laterthe heartwaxedlyricalaboutthe Desert de Retz, with its house built in the form of a great column: "how grand the idea excitedby the remainsof such a column!"36Jefferson'sheart representsKames'scategoryof intrinsicbeauty,
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

223

becausethe remainswere the object in naturethat inspired ulty entirely distinct from the moral one."40 AlthoughJefthe idea of beautyin Jefferson'smind.Jefferson'shead was ferson believed that ideas of beauty and virtue are directly more practical his heartmore personable, both head sensed by faculties distinct from the rational faculty, he and but and heart, both reason and emotion, were criticalcompo- designedthe VirginiaState Capitolto appealto the sense of nents of Enlightenmentaestheticphilosophy.37 the beauty,but not to the sense of morality.He appreciated For the VirginiaState Capitol,Jeffersonrecruitedthe Capitol as pure form, as intrinsic beauty,one might even assistanceof Charles-LouisClerisseau,a French architect say as an abstract form. It was didactic not because it who had worked extensivelywith Robert appealedto the moral sense but becauseit appealedto the and antiquarian Adam. Jefferson wrote that "it was a considerable time sense of beauty;by providingthe citizenrywith a concrete before I could find an architect whose taste had been exampleof universally approvedbeauty,the Virginia State a study of ancientmodels of this art;the style of Capitol would exercise Virginians'underdeveloped-but formedon architecturein this capital [Paris]being far from chaste." innate-aesthetic sense. Clerisseau,he added, "hasstudied 20 years in Rome, and has given proofs of his skill and taste by a publication of "A Son of Nature" as Art Critic some antiquitiesof this country."38 Indeed,Jeffersonprobably chose to work with Clerisseaubecausehe had already For Jefferson, paintings, like buildings, appealed to the publisheda studyof the Maison Carree,which would serve sense of beauty.However,historypaintings,becauseof their as the model for the VirginiaCapitol. depictions of good and evil behavior,might also appealto 1771 book list hadincluded That the building be based on a chaste model from the sense of morality. Jefferson's to Jeffersonbecause Daniel Webb'sInquiryinto the Beauties Painting(1760); was of paramount of importance antiquity An confor it would serveas an exampleof greatarchitecture his fel- he also ownedJoseph Spence'sPolymetis:or, Enquiry low Virginians,many of whom might never leave the state cerningthe Works the RomanPoets,and the Remains the of of models of beauty."How is a Ancients and thus never see appropriate (1747), a workthatWebb admired.Both Webb and taste in this beautifulart to be formed in our countrymen, Spence,followersof Alexander Pope andultimatelyof Lord or were farmore idealisticthan eitherJefferson occasionwhen publicbuild- Shaftesbury, of unlesswe availourselves every to ings areerected,of presenting them modelsfor theirstudy Kames.Webb arguedthat taste is "afacilityin the mind to The didacticfunctionwas uppermostin his be moved by what is excellentin an art;it is a feeling of the and imitation?" mind, not as symbolism, but as a provision of universally truth."Indeed,Webb entirelyabandonedthe Lockeandismodels of beautythroughwhich the natural tinction between intrinsicand relativeideas, noting that acknowledged sense of beautycould be sharpened. Jeffersondid not see his nor many writers have opposed judgment to taste, as if they were as a steptowarda uniquelyAmerican architecture, design as conformingto a distinct faculties of the mind; but this must be a mistake: The but as a rejectionof Britisharchitecture, universalstandardof taste. The Capitol was intended "to source of taste is feeling, so is it of judgment, which is nothing improvethe tasteof my countrymen,to increasetheir repu- more than this same sensibility, improved by the study of its tation,to reconcileto them the respectof the worldandpro- properobjects, and broughtto a just point of certaintyand corof For cure them its praise."39 Jeffersonthe approbation the rectness. Thus it is clear that these are but different degrees of rest of the world was a legitimate concern for Americans the same faculty ...41 becausetaste was universal.Through exposureto buildings to basedon the great monumentsof antiquityand modernity, Jeffersonused Spence'sPolymetis develop a list of classical subjectsfor an art galleryat Monticello, but there is litwould be refined. the sense of beautyof Virginians At no point in his voluminous writings did Jefferson tle indication that he found the idealism of Spence and claim he chose the Maison Carreefor the sake of symbol- Webb compelling.42 Lord Kames,like Spence and Webb, admiredclassical ism or associations;nor did he ever claim that building worksthat had a moralpoint, but he did so utilizingLocke's Roman temples would inculcaterepublicanvirtue. Rather, his survivingstatementsabout architecturesuggest that it distinctionbetweensimpleideas,which are sensed and selfwas for the sake of pure beauty,a beautythat was abstract, evident,and complexideas,which arereasonedandrelative. of absolute, and self-evident. This is nowhere made clearer Kamescontendedthat contemplation virtuousactionwill the sympatheticemotion in constantexercise,which in Jefferson's 1814 letter to Thomas Law, where he than "keep flatlystatedthathumanspossess"aninnatesense of whatwe by degreeintroducetha habit,and confirmsthe authorityof echoed Kamesin his 1771 letterto Skipcall beautiful,"and furtherpointed out that this is "a fac- virtue."43Jefferson
224
JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

with,writingthatthat"whenanysignalact of charityor gratitude ... is presentedeitherto our sight or imagination, we are deeplyimpressedwith its beautyand feel a strongdesire in ourselvesof doing charitable gratefulactsalso."In this and sentenceJefferson's was twofold:first,he arguedthat agenda moral acts can be presentedand perceivedvisually,be it in the theater,in a painting, or in real life, and, second, that when we view an act of charity,we are struckby its beauty. His was an aestheticappreciation virtue;indeed,morality of is beauty in action. In words that closely parallelthose of Kames,Jeffersonwrotethatwhen one readsgood fiction,the moral imagination is exercised. Such "exerciseproduceth habit; and in the instance of which we speak, the exercise being of the moralfeelings,producesa habitof thinkingand actingvirtuously."44 While he was in Paris,Jeffersoncarefullyconsultedthe opinions of informed viewers, but in the end he based his position on naturalsensibility.He wrote to Maria Cosway in 1788 about his visit to the DusseldorfGalleryof Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz. "I surelynever saw so precious a collectionof paintings.Aboveall thingsthose of Van der Werff affectedme the most. His pictureof Sarahdelivis Jeffersonalso reported eringAgarto Abraham delicious." that "CarloDolce became also a violent favorite. I am so little of a connoisseur that I preferredthe works of these two authorsto the old fadedred things of Rubens.I am but a son of nature, loving what I see and feel, without being able to give a reason, nor caring much whether there be one."45 Quite conscious that his enthusiasmfor such minor Baroquepaintersas Adriaenvan der Werff and CarloDolci set him apartfrom the opinion of good modernjudges,Jeffersonpersistedin relyingupon his own judgment.His language of approbation was based on the painting that affectedhim the most. His characterization the painting of as "delicious" significantas well: the phrasealludesto the is taste of the tongue but also to the sense of beauty. In spite of his occasionaldeviationsfrom the norms of Enlightenmentconnoisseurship, Jeffersontendedto admire the acknowledgedleaders of modern French art. Having attendedthe Salonof 1787, he wrote to John Trumbullthat "the best thing is the Death of Socrates by David, and a superb one it is." He mentioned that "fivepieces of antiquities by Robertare also amongthe foremost."46Among the that Hubert Robert painted was a composite antiquities view of the monumentsof Nimes (1786), in which the Maison Carree took the central position. The work of David appealedto Jeffersonbecauseof its classicalsubjectmatter and its neoclassicalstyle. Jefferson also expressedadmirationfor Jean Germain Drouais's Marius at Minturnes,which was exhibited pri-

vately in 1787. The painting depicts the moment when a soldier enters to assassinateMarius. The soldier stands before Marius,sword drawn,but Marius,leaning againsta table in his chamber,reacheshis right arm towardthe soldier, who lowers his sword and shields his face with his cloak.The stoic calmwith whichMariusawaitshis fate thus contrasts with the irresolution and shame of the soldier. Drouais was a student of David's at Rome, and Jefferson noted that the canvas"ismuch in David'smanner.All Paris is runningto see it, andreallyit appears me to haveextrato merit.It fixedme like a statuea quarterof an hour, ordinary or half an hour, I do not know which, for I lost all idea of time, 'even the consciousness of my existence.' "47Jefferson'sreaction to this paintingwas consistentwith Kames's concept of "idealpresence."The Scot arguedthat fiction, history painting, and especially theater were capable of seem real. "Thisis the causeof the makinga representation that is felt in a reverie,where a man,losing sight of pleasure himself, is totally occupied with the objects passing in his mind, which he conceives to be really existing in his presence."48 reactionto Mariusparallelshis reaction Jefferson's to the Maison Carree,at which he gazed "likea lover at his which should be understoodas a reverieinduced mistress," by the ideal beautyof this temple.49 belief that good judgescouldusuallyidentify Jefferson's those worksof architecture that appealto mankind's innate sensibilityalso applied to painting and the other arts.Jefferson praisedJohn Trumbull'sseries of history paintings of depictingthe AmericanRevolutionas "monuments taste aswell as of the greatrevolutionary scenesof our country."50 As monuments of taste these works would receive the approbationof any person with common sense, and were analogousto other monumentsof taste, such as the Maison Carree,the Hotel de Salm, or the VirginiaState Capitol. The Universal versus the Regional, and Chasteness versus Fashion In the last year of his stay in Paris,Jeffersonactuallymet a living Scottish philosopher:Dugald Stewart,professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh. They were most likely introduced to one another by the Abbe Andre Morellet, who had translated Noteson Virginia into French Jefferson's and who was one of Stewart's closest Parisianfriends.The Scot and the Virginiansharedinterestsin the arts,in literature, and especially in French politics. Together they watched the return of King Louis XVI to Paris on 17 July 1789, three days after the fall of the Bastille. In April of 1824, Jeffersonreminiscedin a letter to Stewartthat "it is now 35 years since I had the great pleasure of becoming
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

225

acquaintedwith you in Paris, and since we saw together Louis XVI led in triumphby his people thro' the streets of his capital."51 In the midst of the political excitement,Jeffersonand had Stewartcertainly time to discussphilosophyandthe arts. Stewarthad studiedat GlasgowunderThomas Reid,whose into Inquiry theHumanMindJeffersonincludedamong the bookson criticism the fine artson the listwhichhe drewup of for Robert Skipwithin 1771. At the time he met Jefferson, Stewartwas working on his Elements thePhilosophy the of of HumanMind(published 1792),in which he declaredthat in but "tasteis not a simpleandoriginalfaculty, a powergraduIt and allyformedby experience observation. implies,indeed, but a certaindegree of naturalsensibility, it impliesalso the Stewartwas also willing to admit exerciseof the judgment." of but affectmankind's thatassociations perception beauty, he "whichall mankind betweenthose associations distinguished are led to form by their common condition,"and those that This deftly arise"fromlocal and accidentalcircumstances." whichwas betweenabsolutebeauty, the preserved distinction whichwas merelylocal. and universal, relativebeauty, But the issue was not just regionalism versus cosmopolitanism; regional deviations from absolute beauty tended to excessiveornamentationinsteadof classicalsimplicity. Stewartmade the argumentin terms of literature, but it pertainedas well to the plasticarts:"The workswhich continue to please from age to age arewritten with perfect simplicity,while those which captivatethe multitude by a displayof meretriciousornaments,if by chancethey should survive the fashions to which they are accommodated, remain only to furnish a subject of ridicule to posterity." Fashion, with all its capricious changes, was thus distintaste,which was simpleand classical. guishedfromuniversal Indeed, Stewart declared as a general principle "that the simpleststyle is that which continueslongest to please, and which pleasesmost universally. Like other Enlightenment "2 philosophers,Stewartattemptedto determine the correct balance between reason and emotion. He emphasizedthe former more than had Kames, but his work continued to develop Enlightenmentaesthetics. Stewart sent Jefferson a copy of this work, and an American edition was published in Philadelphiain 1793, just one year after its European publication. Many years later Jefferson wrote to Stewart, praising his "invaluable book on the Philosophyof the HumanMind."Jeffersonwas "happyto see it become the text book of most of our coland leges and academies, passthroughseveralreimpressions was Elements to become one in the U.S."53Indeed, Stewart's of the earliest texts on moral philosophy used at the Universityof Virginia.
226 JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

In his conversationswith Stewart,Jefferson seems to have come to the conclusion that regional variationswere the result of unfamiliaritywith ancient models of beauty, and that over time these variantshad begun to seem beautiful simply because they were familiar.Inhabitants of a region simplyassumedthat buildingshad alwaysbeen built that way.Jefferson's mission as an architectwas to show his fellow countrymenthat they should abandonaccustomed ways of building that were used only because they were familiar,and that they should choose instead the chaste forms of antiquitythat would inspirein their minds a truer sort of beauty.In avoiding provincialism, Jefferson hoped that Americans would develop an architecture based on classicalsimplicity, which actually wouldbe superiorto contemporary European architecture, which was all too crowdedwith superfluousornaments. in Jefferson's experiences Francegavehim modelsupon which to base American buildings, and it sharpened his thinking about architecture,though the broad outlines of his thought remainedunchanged.This is clear in his writings about the new capitalcity of Washington.In 1791 he L'Enfant that the United States suggestedto Pierre-Charles should be basedon "one of the models of antiquity Capitol which have had the approbationof thousandsof years."54 He also suggested that the Galerie du Louvre, the GardeMeuble on the Place Louis XV, or the Hotel de Salmmight be adopted for the President's House. Jefferson saw no irony in suggesting that the highest elected official of the United States be housed in a structure based on the east front of the Louvre,which had been built as a palacefor the French kings. Architectural symbolismwas not an important issue for him; the Galerie du Louvrewas not a symbol of absolutist reign but an important monument in the French classical tradition, and a monument of which all Jeffersonhimselfsubpeople of good sense would approve. mitted a plan for the President'sHouse basedon Palladio's Villa Rotonda,showing that his admirationfor Romanand French classicismhad not entirely supersededhis admiration for Palladio.None of these proposalswas adopted,but they are significantevidenceofJefferson'sview of architecture as pure form, which was based on his belief in a sense of beauty. The greatenlargementand remodelingof Monticello, begunin 1796, also reflectedan enlargedFrenchvocabulary fitted into an Enlightenment grammar.The original stair hall had provento be too smallfor the large numberof visitors to Monticello, and the house had proven to have too few bed chambersfor visitorsand family.The secondMonticello featureda greatlyenlargedhall, and smallbed chambers in three tiers, as Jefferson had seen in France. He

continued to design elevations and rooms and details calculated to appeal to mankind's innate sense of beauty through their proportion and ornament. He now did so with the benefitof yearsof experiencein Europeandof new books acquired in Europe, particularlyRoland Freart de de Parallele L'Architecture Chambray's AntiqueAvecla Moderne(1650), one of the great source books of French classicism.The new dome, which dominatedthe west facade,was constructedon the systemof the FrenchRenaissance architect Philibert Delorme, but Jefferson added steps to the dome that gave it an appearance closer to that of a British Palladiancountry house such as Chiswickor of an Italian Renaissance villa by Palladio or his follower Vincenzo Scamozzi.Jefferson'sdesire to avoidprovincialism-which he saw manifestedin ungainlyproportionsor in ornament excessiveor vulgar-drove him to searchin his books and on his travelsfor the puresourcesof classicism. is no wonIt der that the Marquisde Chastelluxwould write thatJefferson was "the firstAmericanwho has consultedthe fine arts to know how he should shelterhimselffrom the weather."55

mented, but without any thing glaringor fantastic, so as upon the whole to inspire our youth with a taste no less for simplicity than for elegance.57

The University of Virginia: Universal or Virginian? The University of Virginiawas the supreme statement of Jefferson's design principles;indeed, it is more eloquent than any of his written statementson architecture. criHis tique of the typical eighteenth-century college had been formulated at least by 1804, when he wrote to L. W. Tazewell,warninghim that it was a mistaketo attempt to build a single large buildingfor a new college:
Large houses are always ugly, inconvenient, exposed to the accident of fire, and bad in cases of infection. A plain small house for the school & lodging of each professor is best. These connected by covered ways out of which the rooms of the students should open would be best. These may then be builtonly as they shall be wanting. Infact, an Universityshould not be a house but a village.56

Jefferson'scritiqueof crowdedcolleges was thus bound up with his criticism of populous cities: a village, indeed any village, was a preferableplace to educate the young comparedwith Philadelphiaor New Yorkor Boston. Walter L. Creese was the first to relate Kames'scriticism of colleges in crowdedcities andhis praiseof extensive gardensat colleges to Jefferson'sdesign for the university, but Creese saw KamesandJeffersonas emergingfrom "the cool and orderlyrationalismof the Enlightenmentinto the fluctuating light, open expectations, and empiricism of the romanticmovement."58 However,KamesandJefferson did not have to wait for the Romanticmovement to adopt an empirical stance, since John Locke had presented an basedphilosophyin his Essay Underempirically Concerning in standing, which he arguedthat the mind was a tabularasa on which experiencewrote.Moreover, JeffersonandKames both sought to applynew scientificmethodsto theirunderstanding of the world, but neither man believed that the humanmindwas a tabularasaor thathumanswere immune from environmental influences.ForJeffersonas for Kames, humanshad the innate abilityto appreciate beautywhether naturalor man-made,but they also were affected by their environment,both for betterandfor worse.The University of Virginia,chastetemplesset in a garden,avoidedthe corrupting temptationsof city life and the crowding and discomfort of single-buildingcolleges. The notion of an "academical village"was at the core ofJefferson's thought.He wrote to the trusteesof EastTennessee College in 1810 that ratherthan
one largeand expensive building... it is infinitely better to erect a small and separate lodge for each separate professorship, with only a hallbelow for his class, and two chambers above for himself;joiningthese lodges by barracksfor a certainportionof the students, opening into a covered way to give a dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arrangedaroundan open square of grass and trees would make it what it should be in fact, an academical village, instead of a large and common den of noise, of filth and of fetid air.

Such sentimentsechoed the criticismof Lord Kames,who wrote on

the advantages of gardening with respect to virtuous education. Inthe beginningof life the deepest impressions are made; and it is a sad truth, that the young student, familiarized the to dirtiness and disorder of many colleges pent within narrow bounds in populous cities, is rendered in a measure insensible
to the elegant beauties of art and nature ... It seems to me far

from an exaggeration, that good professors are not more essential to a college, than a spacious garden sweetly orna-

In languagethat recalledthat of Lord Kames,he noted that "the crowded buildings in which youths are pent up, are equally unfriendly to health, to study, to manner,morals and order."59 Jefferson's plan realized his description in three dimensions. Ten pavilions in two ranges provided classroomspace as well as living quartersfor the professors
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

227

and their families. Between the pavilions were rooms for the students, connected by a colonnaded walkway.At the head of the lawn was the Rotunda,which held the library and additionalrooms for classesand meetings. Jeffersonsaw the pavilionsas didactictools for sharpening the aestheticsense of the students.He wrote in 1816 that the pavilionswould affordthe opportunity"of exhibiting models in architectureof the purestforms of antiquity, furnishingto the studentexamplesof the preceptshe will be Again, Jefferson'sinsistence on "the taught in that art."60 demandfor simrecalledKames's purestformsof antiquity" as well as elegance.Hence, he chose as his model the plicity Pantheon in Rome. As with the Virginia State Capitol, he resolved the externalform first and then altered the interior to suit the needs of the university.The exteriorof the Rotundathus reflectedJefferson'sbelief in a uniformstandard of taste and the need for concrete examplesof good architecture. Kamesnot only helpedJeffersonformulatethe concept of an academical village but also providedthe philosophical justificationfor the serpentinewalls thatJeffersonused to define the gardensbehind each of the pavilions.Following Hogarth, Kames argued that people are so disposed as to undulatingmotion, as of waves,of a flame,of a ship "prefer undersail. Such motion is more free, and also more natural. Hence the beauty of a serpentineriver."61 Serpentinewalls to raise the idea of beautyin the mind as the were as likely Doric order of Palladio.Jefferson used similarundulating that lines in designingthe "roundabouts" encircledMonticello. ForJeffersonas for Kamesa collegiatecampusshould be spacious,clean, and orderly,with buildingsand gardens designedto promotea tastefor simplicityand elegance. Inside the Rotunda,the libraryin the dome room held an extensiveselection of Enlightenmentphilosophy.These ranged from early works such as Hutcheson'sInquiryinto the Originalof Our Ideasof Beautyand Virtueand Systemof Kames'sArt of Thinkingand Elementsof MoralPhilosophy, Criticismin the New York edition of 1819, and Adam in Smith'sTheory MoralSentiments the Boston edition of of as well as the commonsense philosophers Thomas 1817, Reid-the 1813 Charleston edition of his Works-and Dugald Stewart's Elements of Moral Philosophyin the Philadelphia edition of 1811.62 In the first quarterof the nineteenth century,demandfor these worksfor use as textbooks in academiesand colleges was sufficient to require numerousAmericaneditions.And, indeed, George Tucker, the first professorof moral philosophyand belles lettres at includedteachingaeswhose responsibilities the university, and on thetics, used as texts Hugh Blair'sLectures Rhetoric BellesLettres,Adam Smith's The Wealthof Nations, and
228
JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

of Dugald Stewart'sElementsof the Philosophy the Human

Mind.63

As was the case with the VirginiaState Capitol,Jefferson left no statementthat the universitywas importantfor its political symbolism or because it was uniquely American. In 1817, in the midst of planning the university,he stated that "thesepavilions... shall be models of taste and good architecture, & of a variety of appearance,no two alike, so as to serve as specimens of the Architecturallectures."64In 1821, when the constructionof the campuswas well along, he assured a correspondent that "there is no building in the U.S. so worthy of being seen, and which gives an idea so adequateof what is to be seen beyond the Atlantic.There, to be sure,they haveimmenselylargerand more costly masses, but nothing handsomeror in chaster AgainJeffersonmade clearthat the function of the style."65 universitywas not to create something uniquelyAmerican but to give students an idea of the classical tradition of Europe. At the same time, Jefferson emphasizedthe simplicity and chastenessof the style, which would not endanger the taste of young minds with florid ornamentation. Jefferson expandedon this theme in a letter to T. J. Tazewellin 1825:
of The introduction chaste models of the orders of architecture, and of specimens of taken from the finest remains of antiquity, the choicest samples of each orderwas considered as a necesfor sary foundationof instruction the students in this art.... We therefore determined that each of the pavilionserected for the accommodationsof the schools and theirprofessors should present a distinctand differentsample of the artand, these buildings being arrangedaroundthree sides of a square, the lecturer,in a circuitattended by his school, could explainto them successively these samples of the several orders, theirvarieties, peculiarities and accessory circumstances.66

The pavilionswere to servenot as symbolsbut as "samples" that or "specimens" would sharpenthe eyes andsensibilities One almost of the studentswho observedthem empirically. suspects that Jeffersonwould have loved to have servedhad he been younger-as the architecturallecturer at the university. emphasison chastenesslooks UndoubtedlyJefferson's backto ancientRomanidealizationsof rusticvirtue.Paeans to simplicityand to the agrarian lifestylewere not invented in the eraof the Enlightenment.Indeed,KarlLehmannsituatedJeffersonin the traditionof classicalhumanism,and consideredKames'smoral-sensetheory simply as a develnaturalisfor virtue. Such a opment of Cicero's instinctus is supportedby the fact that both Kames andJefreading

fersonwere admirersof Cicero and may well have believed that his position supported their own. However, the distinction between intrinsic and relative ideas, and thus between absoluteandrelativebeauty,was possible only in a post-Lockeanintellectualenvironment.As a critic and as a Jeffersonmust be seen not as attemptingto revive designer, ancientor Renaissance humanism,but as selecting classical formsboth ancientandmodernaccordingto the latestprinciples of Enlightenmentphilosophy.67 In Elementsof Criticism Jefferson found the philosophical for an architecturebased on order, harmony, justification and good proportion, for a style of painting at once neoclassic and didactic,and for an appreciationof the beauty and sublimityof nature. He believed that forms reflecting order, harmony, and good proportion are absolutely or intrinsicallybeautiful;that is, the beautyof certainformsis a self-evidenttruth. And becauseall men everywherewere endowed by their creatorwith the same sense of beauty,it followed that taste was uniform aroundthe world. AsJeffersonconsideredthe beautyof good proportion and chaste ornament to be self-evident, so were certain politicalprinciples:that all men are createdequal, and that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty,and the pursuitof happiness.For Jefferson these fundamental principleswere simple ideas, intrinsic, axiomatic,and self-evident.But it must be remembered that the sense of beauty was distinct from the sense of was Jeffersonis on recordthat architecture an elemorality. and useful art, but nowhere does he claim that it was gant moral or political in nature. The tendency of Kames and other Enlightenment philosophersto thinkuniversallyledJeffersonto thinkuniversally.He believedthat a sense of moralityand a sense of beautywere possessednot justby Americansbut by all people. His aestheticthoughtcan be saidto be profoundlyegalitarian,profoundlydemocratic,and profoundlyoptimistic. For Jefferson, architecturecould not inculcate republican virtue, but he neverthelesshoped that people everywhere would one day be able to live virtuousand beautifullives.

Notes
The author wishes to acknowledgethe support and assistanceof Blake William H. Goetzmann,James F O'Gorman,Damie Stillman, Alexander, MarkR. Wenger, RichardGuy Wilson, and the editorsof SAH past and present. 1. EleanorDavidsonBerman,ThomasJefferson AmongtheArts (New York, 1947);WilliamHowardAdams,ed., TheEyeof ThomasJefferson (Washingand ton, 1976),25-26 (catalogue entry54 byJ. M. Edelstein); WilliamBain-

ter O'Neal, Jefferson's Arts Library: Selections the University Fine His for of with Books (Charlottesville,1976). VirginiaTogether His OwnArchitectural Two studiespriorto BermandiscussedKamesas an influenceon Jefferson's GilbertChinard,ThomasJefferson: Apostle The politicalphilosophy: ofAmericanism (Boston, 1929),29-30, 45, 84-85, andAdrienneKoch, ThePhiloso(New York, 1943), 15-21, 45, 49. O'Neal also did phy of Thomas Jefferson not include Burke's essayon the sublime,the other key workon aesthetics on Jefferson'searly list. Kames also was mentioned in TheEye of Thomas on Jefferson p. 315 (by William HowardAdams)and on p. 321 (by Eleanor McPeck)with regardto landscape gardening.SusanR. Stein,in TheWorlds at (New York,1993),mentionedKamesonce of Thomas Jefferson Monticello studiedKames's while liv(99), to the effectthatJefferson Principles Equity of ing in Williamsburg. 2. Bornin Carmyllie, in Scotland, 1734,Smalltook his M.A. fromMarischal College, Aberdeen,in 1755, andbecameprofessorof naturalphilosophyat the College of William andMary in 1758. Soon afterJefferson's arrivalat William and Mary in spring 1760, the trusteesexpelledJacob Rowe, the professorof moral philosophy,and Small held that position as well until the Rev.Richard Graham appointed 1761.ThomasJefferson,"Autowas in (dated6 January1821), in Paul LeicesterFord, ed., The Writbiography" ings of Thomas Jefferson(New York, 1892), 1: 3-5; Herbert L. Ganter, "WilliamSmall,Jefferson's BelovedTeacher," William MaryQuarterly, and 3rdser.,4 (October 1947):505-508; DumasMalone,Jefferson Virginian the (Boston, 1948), 53-55, 73-74; and Mark R. Wenger, "ThomasJefferson, the College of WilliamandMary,and the Universityof Virginia," VirThe 103 (uly 1995): 339-374, esp. ginia Magazineof Historyand Biography 351-359. 3. EdwardDumbauld,Thomas and Jefferson the Law (Norman, 1978), 15, 164 n. 10, and 172 nn. 95-97. On Jefferson'slibraries,see E. Millicent Sowerby,Catalogue theLibrary ThomasJefferson of (Charlottesville, of 1955). 4. ThomasJeffersonto Robert Skipwith,3 August 1771, inJulian P. Boyd, ed., ThePapers ThomasJefferson (Princeton,1950) 1: 76-81. of 5. On Kames,see William C. Lehmann,HenryHome,LordKames, the and Scottish A and Enlightenment: Studyin NationalCharacter in the Historyof Ideas(The Hague, 1971);and Ian SimpsonRoss, LordKames the Scotand landofHis Day (Oxford,1972).On Hutcheson,see Peter Kivy,TheSeventh A Sense: Study OurIdeas Francis Hutcheson's Aesthetics of of (New York,1976). 6. Henry Home, Lord Kames,Elements Criticism of (Edinburgh,1762), 3: 331, 328, 332, and 1:245-246, 250-251. Elements Criticism of enjoyedenormous popularity American in One collegeswell into the nineteenthcentury. of the earliestto assignit was Timothy Dwight, the tutor at Yale(and its futurepresident),who used it for his class on rhetoricand belles lettres in 1776. Leon Howard,TheConnecticut (Chicago, 1943), 26, 86. Wits 7. Kames,Elements Criticism, 334-335. 3: of 8. Ibid., 3: 310. 9. Ibid., 2: 7, and 3: 312-313. For a recent discussionof Mount Airy,see Dell Upton, "White and Black Landscapesof Eighteenth-CenturyVir2, ginia,"Places no. 2 (1985):59-72. 10. Kames,Elements Criticism, 339. 3: of 11. Ibid., 3: 340. For Inveraray Architecture in Castle,seeJohn Summerson, Britain,1530-1830 (Harmondsworth, 1953, 1969),440-441; his figure353 is a drawingof the castle by JamesAdam.William Adamwas the original overseerof the castle;afterhis deathin 1748,the workwas continuedby his sonsJohn and Robert. 12. A fundamentalshift in attitudeabout associationscame in 1790 with the publicationof ArchibaldAlison'sEssays the Natureand Principles on of Taste,butJefferson does not seem to have owned or read this volume. It was, however,among the books acquiredfor the libraryof the University of Virginia.WilliamH. Peden, ed., 1828 Catalogue theLibrary the Uniof of
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OF BEAUTY

229

(Charlottesville,1945). of versity Virginia 13.John Fleming,Robert Adamandhis Circle: Edinburgh Rome In and (CamMass.,1962),307-312. Flemingwent so faras to claimthat"theinflubridge, in enceof Kamesis in factpredominant James's essayon architectural theory"; he attempted contrast to Kames's with "sentimentalism" the supposed"rationalism" DavidHume, althoughthe aesthetictheoriesof the cousinswere of on JamesAdam's actually quitesimilar. essayis reprinted pp. 315-319. 14. Robert Adam to Lord Kames, 31 March 1763, in AlexanderFraser Tytler, Memoirsof the Life and Writingsof the Honourable HenryHomeof Kames 3: 184-190. (Edinburgh,1814), 15. DavidWatkin,SirJohnSoane: and AcadEnlightenment Thought theRoyal emyLectures (Cambridge,1996), 42, 50-53. Watkin also discussesKames and the Adambrotherson pp. 26-28. 16. Ibid., 19, 26-27, 226-236. Soane also ownedThomas Whately'sObservationson ModernGardening, which was on Jefferson's 1771 list. Soane but owned a copy of Elements Criticism, its date of purchaseis not clear. of his Watkinstates(228) that Soanepurchased copy in 1813,makingdetailed for notes on it in preparation his next series of lectures,but he also states (26) that Soane bought the book in 1778. Whateverthe case, Soane made in detailednotes on Elements Criticism March 1813, filling some seventyof influenceon in two folios,which arepreserved the SoaneMuseum.Kames's Soane was most evident in Lectures X and XI, which were first given in March 1815. 17. Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787, in Julian P. Boyd, Mina R. Bryan,and Frederick Aandahl,eds., ThePapers ThomasJefferson of (Princeton,1955), 12: 14-19. 18. Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 13 June 1814, in AndrewA. LipscombandA. E. Bergh,eds., TheWritings ThomasJefferson (Washington, of 1903), 14: 138-144. This letter is a key piece of evidencein GarryWills's s America: City, of Jefferson Declaration Independence(Garden N.Y., Inventing 1978),which arguedforcefullyfor the significanceof the ScottishEnlightenmentuponJefferson's politicalthinking.This workis seriouslyflawed,as Wills portrayedHutcheson as rejectingLocke ratherthan as workingin a Hutcheson'smoralLockeantradition,andclaimedthat Kamesabandoned sense theory,that he was thus a more traditionalthinkerthan Hutcheson, and that he was less of an influence on Jeffersonthan Hutcheson. Wills's case for Hutcheson flew in the face of almostall the primaryevidence,and forcedWills to quote the letter to Thomas Law withoutJefferson'sreference to Kamesas "oneof our ablestadvocatesof the moralsense."See also and Ronald Hamowy,"Jefferson the Scottish Enlightenment:A Critique Declaration Independence," America: of GarryWills' Inventing of Jefferson's 3rd WilliamandMaryQuarterly, ser., 36 (October 1979):503-523. 19. Thomas Jefferson, Noteson the State of Virginia(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1954), 152-153. 20. Ibid. 21. Jeffersonto James Oldham,24 December 1804, quoted in William B. O'Neal, "PatternBooks in AmericanArchitecture1730-1930," in Mario di Valmarana, Building theBook 1984),52. On Leoni, ed., (Charlottesville, by and see Rudolf Wittkower,Palladio Palladianism (London and New York, 1974), 79-85. 340-342. 22. Kames,Elements Criticism, of 23. Thomas Jeffersonto Ellen Randolph,10 July 1805, quoted in Edwin GardenBook(Philadelphia, 1944), Morris Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson's 303-304. 3: 24. Kames,Elements Criticism, 303-304; onJeffersonandWhately,see of Doveton Nichols and 349, Edelstein,Eyeof ThomasJefferson, andFrederick Architect E. Griswold, Thomas (Charlottesville, Landscape Jefferson, Ralph 1978), 76-85. 1: 25. Kames,Elements Criticism, 298, and 3: 313. of
230 JSAH / 59:2, JUNE 2000

26. ThomasJefferson MariaCosway,12 October 1786,inJulianP. Boyd, to Mina R. Bryan,andFrederick Aandahl,eds., ThePapers ThomasJefferson of (Princeton,1954), 10:443-453. This parallelbetweenKamesandJefferson was firstnoted by William L. Beiswangerin "The Temple in the Garden: Visionof the MonticelloLandscape," RobertP.Macin ThomasJefferson's cubbin and Peter Martin, eds., BritishandAmerican Gardens the Eighin teenthCentury 1984) 178-179. (Williamsburg, 19. 27. Jefferson,Noteson Virginia, 1: 28. Kames,Elements Criticism, 375. CharlesA. Miller devotesan entire of in to "The NaturalBasisof the Good and the Beautiful" Jefferson chapter and Nature:An Interpretation (Baltimore,1988), which discussesthis passage and that describingthe NaturalBridge,but Kamesis mentionedonly in passing,p. 93 n. and 116. 29. Jefferson,Noteson Virginia, 24-25. 30. EdmundBurke,A Philosophical into Enquiry the Originof ourIdeas the of Sublime Beautiful, J. T. Boulton (London, 1958). For furtherdisand ed. cussionof Burke's see Enquiry, KennethHafertepe,"TheEnlightenedSenArt (Ph.D. diss., sibility:ScottishPhilosophyin American andArchitecture" of Texas,1986),44-52. University 1: 31. Kames,Elements Criticism, 273. of 32. Thomas Jeffersonto JamesMadison, 20 September1785, in Julian P. of Boyd, Mina R. Bryan,and ElizabethL. Hutter, eds., ThePapers Thomas (Princeton,1953), 8: 534-535; AndreaPalladio,TheFourBooks of Jefferson Architecture (Venice,1570;London, 1738;New York,1965),BookIV,Chap. XXVII and pls. 81-86. Thanks to James E O'Gormanfor pointing out to me that the Maison Carreeis in Palladio. 33. Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Tesse, 20 March 1787, in Julian P. of Boyd, Mina R. Bryan,and FrederickAandahl,eds., The Papers Thomas (Princeton,1955), 11: 226-228. Jefferson 34. ThomasJeffersonto Pierre CharlesL'Enfant,10 April 1791, in Julian (Princeton,1982), 20: 86. of Boyd, ed., ThePapers ThomasJefferson Paris 35. On Jefferson in Paris, see Howard C. Rice, Thomas Jefferson's (Princeton, 1976), and Dumas Malone, Jeffersonand the Rightsof Man seemsto be movingawayfromthe claim (Boston,1951).Recentscholarship that Jefferson was a Francophile;see Charles E. Brownell, "Layingthe Groundwork: The Classical Tradition and Virginia Architecture, and Architecture: 1770-1870," in TheMakingof Virginia Drawings Models, 1719-1990 (Richmond, 1992), esp. p. 52. My position is that Jefferson admiredmoderndesign as well as ancient,but alwaysdesign in the classical tradition. 36. Jefferson to Cosway, 12 October 1786, in Boyd et al., eds., Papersof 10: Thomas Jefferson, 443-453; on the Halle au Ble, see Rice, ThomasJef's ferson Paris,18-21. with MariaCosway and Madamede Tesse 37. Jefferson'scorrespondence has been characterized-one might even say dismissed-as flirtatiousand only half serious.It has been observedthatJeffersondid not write similar However,the differemotionallytinged letters to his male acquaintances. of ence between letters to correspondents differentgenderscan easily be for Jeffersonexpressedgreatadmiration the Maison Caroveremphasized. ree in letters not only to Madamede Tess6but also to JamesMadison;he sang the praisesof the NaturalBridgeand the confluenceof the Potomac at and Shenandoah Harper's Ferrynot only privatelyto MariaCoswaybut also publiclyin Noteson theStateof Virginia. and 38.JeffersontoJamesBuchanan WilliamHay, 13 August1785,in Boyd et al., eds., Papersof Thomas Jefferson,8: 366; Charles-Louis Clerisseau, de (Paris,1778).Two recent discussionsof the Virginia Antiquites la France and Clerisseau the State Capitol are Thomas J. McCormick, Charles-Louis Genesis Neo-Classicism Mass., 1990), 191-199, andMarkR. (Cambridge, of Wenger, "ThomasJeffersonand the VirginiaState Capitol,"The Virginia

101 Magazineof Historyand Biography (January1993): 77-102. Wenger demonstrates that the Richmond Capitol closely followed the internal of arrangements the 1751 WilliamsburgCapitol. 39.Jeffersonto Madison,20 September1785, in Boyd et al., eds., Papers of Thomas 8: Jefferson, 534-535. 40. Jeffersonto Thomas Law, 13June 1814, in Lipscomband Bergh, eds., 14: Writings Thomas of Jefferson, 138-144. 41. Daniel Webb,An Inquiryintothe Beauties Painting(London, 1760), of 8-9. 42. Stein, Worlds Thomas discussesWebb and Spence on pp. of Jefferson, 28-29 (see n. 1). 43. Kames,Elements Criticism, 73, 75. 1: of 44. Jeffersonto Skipwith,3 August 1771,in Boyd,ed., Papers ThomasJefof ferson,1: 76-77. 45. Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway,24 April 1788, in Julian P. Boyd andMina R. Bryan,eds., ThePapers Thomasefferson (Princeton, 1956), of 13: 103-104. This letter is discussedin Stein, Worlds Thomas of Jefferson, 37-38. The proverbial sayingof the French,"I like it, though I cannot say why,"applieshere, butJeffersonknew at leastthat the paintingappealedto somethingin his very nature. 46. Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull,30 August 1787, in Boyd et al., 12: eds., Papers ThomasJefferson, 69, andJeffersonto Madamede Br6han, of 19 March 1789, in Julian P. Boyd, William H. Gaines,Jr., andJoseph H. Harrison,Jr., eds., The Papersof Thomas (Princeton, 1958), 14: Jefferson 29-30. 655-656, quoted in Stein, Worlds ThomasJefferson, of 47. Jeffersonto Madamede Brehan,19 March 1789, in Boyd et al., Papers 14: of Thomas Jefferson, 656. On Drouais'sMarius, see Adams,ed., Eye of Thomas 191 (see n. 1). For furtherinformationon Drouais, see Jefferson, PatrickRamade,"Jean-Germain Drouais:recent discoveries," Burlington Magazine130 (May 1988):365-367. 48. Kames,Elements Criticism, 112-117. 1: of 49. Jefferson to Madame de Tesse, 20 March 1787, in Boyd et al., eds., 11: Papers Thomas of Jefferson, 226. 50. Irma B. Jaffee, Trumbull: Declaration Independence The (New York, of 19 1976),88-90; ThomasJeffersonto JamesBarbour, January1817, quoted in Theodore Sizer, ed., TheAutobiography Colonel (New of John Trumbull Haven, 1953), 310. 51. ThomasJeffersonto DugaldStewart,26 April 1824,in the ThomasJeffersonPapers,the Massachusetts HistoricalSociety.For furtherbackground on Frenchpoliticalevents,see Malone,Jefferson theRights Man, 222. and of 52. Dugald Stewart,Elements the Philosophy the HumanMind (1792), of of

which is volume 2 of The Collected Works DugaldStewart,ed. William of Hamilton (Edinburgh,1877), 321, 325, 327, 328. 53.Jeffersonto Stewart,26 April 1824, in theJeffersonPapers,the MassachusettsHistoricalSociety. 54.Jeffersonto L'Enfant,10 April 1791, in Boyd, ed., Papers ThomasJefof ferson,20: 86. 55. Marquisde Chastellux,Travels NorthAmerica theYears in in 1780, 1781, and 1782, ed. HowardC. Rice (ChapelHill, N.C., 1963), 2: 391. 56. Jeffersonto L. W. Tazewell,5 January1805,JeffersonPapers,University of Virginia,quotedin PatriciaC. SherwoodandJosephMichaelLasala, "Education Architecture: Evolutionof the Universityof Virginia's and The AcademicalVillage,"in RichardGuy Wilson, ed., Thomas AcaJeffersons demical The (Charlottesville, Masterpiece Village: Creation ofAn Architectural 1993), 11. 57. The passagefromKamesfirstappeared the 3rdeditionof Elements in of Criticism-the one Jeffersonowned-in vol. 2, p. 447 of that edition. The present text-slightly revised-is from the 6th edition of 1785, vol. 2, p. 454. The dirt and disorderof Jefferson's almamateris well documentedin Wenger, "ThomasJefferson, the College of William and Mary, and the (see Universityof Virginia" n. 2). 58. WalterL. Creese, TheCrowning theAmerican of Landscape: EightGreat and (Princeton,1985), 14, 21. Spaces TheirBuildings 59. Thomas Jeffersonto Hugh L. White et al., 6 May 1810, in Lipscomb and Bergh,eds., Writings Thomas 12: of Jefferson, 387-388 (see n. 18). 60. Jeffersonto GovernorWilson CaryNicholas, 2 April 1816, ibid., 14: 453. 61.Kames,Elements Criticism, 311. 1: of 62. Peden, ed., 1828 Catalogue theLibrary the University Virginia. of of of 63. Robert McLean, GeorgeTucker: Moral Philosopher Man of Letters and Bruce,History theUniver(ChapelHill, N.C., 1961),29; PhilipAlexander of 1819-1919 (New York,1920),2: 5;P.B. Barringer,J. GarM. sityof Virginia, nett, andR. Page, eds., TheUniversity Virginia (New York,1904), 101. of 64. Thomas Jeffersonto William Thornton, 9 May 1817, in Adams,ed., 286. Eyeof Thomas Jefferson, 65. ThomasJeffersontoJames Pleasants,26 December 1821, in Ford, ed., 12: of Writings ThomasJefferson, 213 (see n. 2). 66. ThomasJeffersonto T.J. Tazewell,quotedin WilliamH. Pierson,Jr., American and The and Buildings TheirArchitects: Colonial Neoclassical Styles (GardenCity,N.Y., 1970),475-476, n. 8.23. 67. KarlLehmann,ThomasJefferson, American Humanist (New York,1947), 131-132.

THOMAS

JEFFERSON'S

IDEAS

OF BEAUTY

231