Classical Taste in the Architectural World of Thomas Jefferson (Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception)

Reaching beyond politics and law, this book focuses on Thomas Jefferson as an aesthetic classicist. Jefferson embraced the influence of antiquity through his adoption of classical architecture in his Virginia residences, in order to establish Rome as an ancestor to America.In a time of significant political and cultural change, he aligned himself with a Greco-Romano legacy that represented knowledge, power and art.Alley Marie Jordan studies the architectural and landscape spaces of Jefferson’s classical taste, which include the villas of Monticello and Poplar Forest, as well as the University of Virginia.An examination of these places exposes his deeply entrenched views of the importance of classics in Virginia, and reveals them as expressions of admiration of classical antiquity. Seeking to uncover an underexplored side of his character, Jordan deconstructs his identity through a classical lens and illustrates his influence on American culture, as well as his desire to reform it via t