ABSTRACT
Palladio governed Thomas Jefferson's architectural choices; Palladio and the issue of virtue, which, as it happens, also had a Palladian component. A slightly more voluptuous, mirror-image of the same Virtus, again trampling a fallen tyrant, appears on the obverse of a so-called "Indian Medal" struck in 1780 at the height of the revolutionary war for Jefferson when he was governor of Virginia, and meant for distribution to Cherokee chiefs who agreed to join the fight against the British. For Jefferson, overturning the King's rule in America entailed the further rejection of all forms of inherited authority. Although Jefferson lived in France from 1784 to 1789 and visited northern Italy during that time, he never actually saw a building by Palladio. Jefferson perfected the tradition, and through adherence to the principles laid down by the master, built a farmhouse that might consequently be called doubly virtuous.
