agreed with mr Moore that he shall level 250 f. square on the top of the mountain at the N E end by Christmas, for which I am to give 180 bushels of wheat, and 24 bushels of corn, ... if there should be any solid rock to dig we will leave to indifferent men to settle that part between us
Decoration of paper machee for a ceiling 14 f. 4 I. sq. divided into 6 + 2 compartments, and resembling as much as may be Gibbs’ rules for drawg pl. 58. upper figure, & Palladio B. 4. Pl. 26. fig. C.D.F.
for we may safely aver, that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.
but how is a taste in this beautiful art to be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail ourselves of every occasion when public buildings are to be erected, of presenting to them models for their study & imitation?
I received this summer a letter from Messrs Buchanan & Hay as directors of the public buildings desiring I would have drawn for them plans of sundry buildings, & in the first place of a Capitol ... we took for our model what is called the Maison-quarrèe of Nismes, one of the most...
you see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. but it is an enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as it’s object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world & procure them it’s praise.
à propos of the Capitol. do my dear friend exert yourself to get the plan begun or set aside, & that adopted which was drawn here. it was taken from a model which has been the admiration of 16. centuries, which has been the object of as many pilgrimages as the tomb of Mahomet: which will give...
the city of London, tho’ handsomer than Paris, is not so handsome as Philadelphia. their architecture is in the most wretched stile I ever saw, not meaning to except America where it is bad, nor even Virginia where it is worse than in any other part of America, which I have seen.
Architecture worth great attention. as we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our houses. ... it is then among the most important arts: and it is desireable to introduce taste into an art which shews so much.
I send for your acceptance some sheets of drawing-paper, which being laid off in squares representing feet, or what you please, saves the necessity of using the rule & dividers in all rectangular draughts & those whose angles have their sines & co-sines in the proportion of any...
whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of antiquity which have had the approbation of thousands of years
in Paris particularly all the new & good houses are of a single story. that is of the height of 16. or 18. f. generally, & the whole of it given to the rooms of entertainment; but in the parts where there are bedrooms they have two tier of them of from 8. to 10. f. high each, with a...
a very coarse & uninformed carpenter is making mine, who never heard of a dome before. it is the only way of framing a dome so as to give it’s hollow to the height of the room.
to all this I add that it is deemed to read the Latin & Greek authors in their original is a sublime luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening or the other arts.
would it not be best to make the internal columns of well burnt bricks moulded in portions of circles adapted to the diminution of the columns. Ld Burlington in his notes on Palladio tells us that he found most of the buildings erected under Palladio’s direction & he described in his...
there never was a Palladio here even in private hands till I brought one ... I send you my portable edition, which I value because it is portable ... it contains only the 1st book on the orders, which is the essential part.
I recieved yesterday your letter of the 11th and observe you are fitting up a Corinthian room for mr. Gallego. I am glad to learn it, because a single example of chaste architecture may guide the taste of the city and especially when they find that that system of architecture which has now been...
It is with real pain I oppose myself to your passion for the lanthern, and that in a matter of taste, I differ from a professor in his own art. but the object of the artist is lost if he fails to please the general eye. you know my reverence for the Graecian & Roman style of architecture. ...
The house was in an unfinished state, and when Mr. Seymour observed it, Mr. Jefferson replied—“And I hope it will remain so during my life, as architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favourite amusements.”
I think that the work when finished will be a durable and honorable monument of our infant republic, and will bear favorable comparison with the remains of the same kind of the antient republics of Greece & Rome.