 This device provided better protection from fire and gave the overall design a greater degree of visual solidity and three dimensionality (see image at right).This adaptation from Palladio's model marks his maturity as an architect and ranks him as one of America's first and finest architects.The initial design of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello was taken from the Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese, Italy, in Book II, Chapter XV of "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura", but this façade was later covered up by Jefferson's own expansions to his house.