Pantheon

Originally built by Marcus Agrippa

Rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian
Basic Information
Year / Period it was made or completed: The temple was founded in 27
B.C. by Marcus Agrippa, who is given credit for the building on the portico
inscription. But the Pantheon was completely reconstructed in 126 A.D. by Hadrian,
a cosmopolitan emperor who had traveled widely in the East. He is credited with the
basic plan, an architectural design that was unique for the time.
Dimensions: The huge rotunda is 6.20 meters thick. The circular opening on
top of the ceiling of the dome is 9 meters in diameter. The height from it to the
pavement is 43.20 meters, the same as the inner diameter of the drum. The
pronaos is irregular, 34 meters wide and 13.60 meters deep.
Medium used: Visual Art, Three-Dimensional Art, Architecture. On the lowest
level travertine, the heaviest material was used, then a mixture of travertine and
tufa, then tufa and brick, then all brick was used around the drum section of the
dome, and finally pumice, the lightest and most porous of materials on the ceiling of
the dome. This use of lighter materials on top alleviated the immense weight of the
dome. The Corinthian columns of the portico are monoliths of polished granite. The
ancient bronze doors are still preserved, though they were repaired in the sixteenth
century. The cella is built of formed concrete, faced with fine brickwork. The walls of
brick and concrete are solid except for the niches, over which are imbedded in the
masonry brick relieving arches as thick as the entire wall. These arches carry the
thrust of the dome down to the solid masonry. The dome is constructed of horizontal
layers of brick laid in thick cement, strengthened by a series of arches converging in
the crown. The roof was covered with gilded tiles. Originally, the outer walls were
faced with marble and stucco and the dome was covered with bronze plates. The
now-bare concrete coffering of the dome was originally painted blue; each coffer
contained a rosette of gilded bronze. On top of the ceiling of the dome is a cirulcar
opening surrounded by a cornice in bronze, through which light is admitted.
Present location: Rome
Interpretation/Analysis
The Roman Pantheon is believed to be commissioned during the reign of
Augustus by Marcus Agrippa in the years 27 B.C. 14 A.D. Evidence by the
inscription on the faade which reads: M-AGRIPPA-L-F-COS-TERTIVM-FECIT which
means MARCUS AGRIPPA, son of Lucius made this building when consul for the
third time. However, it is conceded that it was raged by fire in so A.D. and was
rebuilt by Domitian. It was burnt again in 110 A.D. and European Hadrian rebuilt it in
126 A.D. Historians would tell that in all the ruins, the faade on which the
inscription is found was spared. There was no certainty whether it was rebuilt
according to its original shape, style, and materials. But the proximity to its original
foundation does not detract from the fact that it was built in antiquity and continued
to be in use in the present.
According to Frederick Hartt, author of Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture,
Architecture in 1989, once one enters the Pantheon, its revolutionary character
becomes apparent in one of the few truly overwhelming spatial experiences in
architecture, so grand in fact that it cannot be represented convincingly by
photographic means. We must have recourse to a painting done in the eighteenth

century by Giovanni Paolo Pannini entitled the Interior of the Pantheon. The interior
of the Pantheon conveys the effect of a colossal sphere, whose perfect beauty is
untroubled by excrescences. No interior before or after the Pantheon has achieved
quite this impression. A long tradition in ancient times associated architectural
domes with the Dome of Heaven, the sky itself, a tradition also appropriate for a
building dedicated to the worship of all the gods as was the Pantheon. The
breathtaking interior space of this great building arouses in the observer a sense of
liberation analogous to what we feel when we gaze into the open sky. Helen
Gardner, who wrote Art through the Ages in 1959, said that the Pantheon is the
clearest statement of the principles through which Roman architecture enclosed
space and created its own interior universe. It was designed as a planetarium, a
temple to the whole universe. Domes had been built before but never on such a
scale. The Romans ideal of great scale made Emperor Hadrian daring, while his
practical nature and his engineering skill kept him within the bounds of structural
possibilities. In the Pantehon in Rome, Hadrian formulated an impressive, finite
definition of the Roman universe.
The built of the Pantheon which consists of a rectangular portico made of
Corinthian columns leading to the circular interior known as cella and covered by a
dome with an opening at the center was dedicated as temple for the Roman gods.
Thus, its architecture. No wonder why there was a smooth transition to its
conversion to a church, that is, from a temple of the Roman gods to a Church
dedicated to Mary and the martyrs.
Insights
Breathtaking, colossal, sublime. These are three words that come to mind
when we read and get a sense of the Roman Pantheon. Its interior and the materials
that go with it are overwhelming. The massive dome penching on arches and the
wide central oculus which has survived for over two millenia gives us goosebumps.
The oculus welcoming the light to the interior at the same time providing artful gaze
to the open sky is awesome. That it was once covered with bronze plates before
they were taken down to be used as canons is beyond our imagination. The polished
granite of the corinthian columns and the gilded tiles that cover the roof simply
shows that antiquity does not necessarily mean obsolesence. Truly, the Roman
Pantheon is a testament of lasting human creativity.
In all these sense of awe and wonder, we could not help harbor the thought
of the human resources that built this massive work of human architecture, the
sweat and blood of the men who labored to see its completion in all its niceties.
Finally, the evolution of the Roman Pantheon from its pagan foundation
dedicated to the gods of the Ancient Rome to its conversion to a Christian Church
dedicated to Mary is poignant and profound.
References
Gardner, Helen. Art through the Ages. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959. Print.
Hartt, Frederick. Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1989. Print.
Platner, Samuel Ball. "Pantheon." A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome.
Ed. Thomas Ashby. 1929. 07 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.
<http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/R
oma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Pantheon.html>.