Existing comment:
This replica shows how the model of the Capitol may have looked as constructed by Jean-Pierre Fouquet from the design provided by Jefferson and Clerisseau. Details reveal the Capitol design as an architectural testimony to Jefferson's British Palladianism influenced by Clerisseau's French neo-Classicism. The form and proportion of the building are chiefly Jefferson's design, as was the decision to use the Ionic order of architecture. Details such as the garlands and rosettes, the third-story attic windows, and the form of the scrolled consoles supporting the door cornices come from Clerisseau's tradition.
Colonial Williamsburg conservators used a combination of modern technology and traditional craftsmanship to construct the replica. X-radiographs of the original model revealed the intricate detail in Fouquet's artisanry. The X-ray images were translated into three dimensions using a 3D computer modeling program, enabling accurate prototype elements to be produced using a computer-assisted scanning and milling machine. Working with the prototypes, modern and traditional moldmaking and casting techniques were used to fabricate the plaster replica.
From http://hodcap.state.va.us/publications/Capitol_Visitor_Guide.pdf :
Jefferson once wrote that "architecture is my delight." After the Revolution, Virginians instinctively turned to Jefferson and asked him to design a new state Capitol, combining "economy with elegance and utility."
Jefferson was responsible for recommending the Shockoe hilltop location, choosing the Classical temple form, and arranging the interior fl oor plans to accommodate the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of Virginia's new "Commonwealth" government.
Intending to leave no doubts about the exterior form of the great specimen of Classical architecture that would rise in Richmond, Jefferson adopted the costly European practice of commissioning a scale model of the proposed building and turned to the eminent model maker Jean-Pierre Fouquet (1752-1829). Jefferson justified the additional expense of the model by proclaiming it "absolutely necessary for the guide of workmen not very expert in their art."
The plaster model for the Virginia Capitol shipped from France in December 1786 and arrived in Richmond in late February 1787. Jefferson intended to provide "models of the front and side in plaster of Paris" along with the drawings of his design prepared by Clérisseau.
He described the maker of the model, Jean-Pierre Fouquet, as "an artist who had been employed by the ambassador of France to Constantinople, in making models of the most celebrated remains of ancient architecture in that country." Fouquet was one of the most accomplished artisans working in the French architectural model making tradition of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The model for the Virginia Capitol is his earliest extant work. Fouquet's model, constructed of plaster of Paris at a scale of 1:60, or one inch to every fi ve feet, and reinforced with internal iron rods, displayed architectural details with precision. |